


Lost In Translation

by tiny_mudkip



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Canon Bisexual Character, Canon LGBTQ Character, Character Development, Dolores Umbridge Being an Asshole, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Seventh Year, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'll add more tags as I think of them, Light-Hearted, Not Beta Read, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, slight angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:20:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 36,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23595223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiny_mudkip/pseuds/tiny_mudkip
Summary: Harriet Kohl is a German transfer at Hogwarts. Coming from a modest institution where magical education is only provided until the students are sixteen, she takes her seventh year at Hogwarts in preparation for the NEWTs. There, she will make lasting friendships, and maybe fall in love.There's only one question: is she ready for it?A/N: I suck at summaries so yeah. This is a George x OC story following loosely the fifth book, there will be slow burn, fluff and shenanigans all together. I hope you enjoy it! **UPDATES EVERY THURSDAY**
Relationships: Fred Weasley & Original Female Character(s), George Weasley/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short prologue to establish the general background, all chapters will be longer. Thanks for reading!

No one who knew Harriet Kohl would say she was someone out of the ordinary, strange or unusual. Born and raised in a half-blood family, with a muggle father, she hadn’t stood out at her old school; a modest institution located in Eastern Germany that held less than a hundred students and provided the necessary magical education until they were sixteen years of age.

In Germany, wizards were supposed to leave school at sixteen and start working right away, but that didn’t apply to every other country, and especially not to England, where the Kohl family had to abruptly move due to Harriet’s grandmother falling ill.

The young woman had gotten the choice to either start working or to continue her education for one last year, as it was required in England, and so, after a long conversation with the famous wizard Albus Dumbledore, she had obtained a place at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry, seventh year, one year younger than her future classmates. One year of preparation for the NEWTs, and then she would be free of schooling.

No one had taken into account the dark shadow that loomed over the wizarding word.


	2. Arriving at Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet meets some interesting people during the train ride.  
> 

“Are you sure you’ll be alright? Remember Dumbledore offered assistance in whatever you need, you can ask any teacher too, and maybe even get a map…” Marietta Kohl rambled during the entirety of the trip to King’s Cross, playing the role of worried mother. They were going by car, the muggle way, and Harriet was already wishing they were there just to stop listening to her mother.

“Mom, stop worrying.” The sixteen-year-old sighed, trying hard not to roll her eyes as she looked out of the window. “I will be alright.”

She wasn’t that scared child anymore, the one that had started her magical education at eleven and needed adults to guide her around. No, Harriet Kohl was already old enough to fend for herself.

“Well, I’m just saying –”

“Stop.”

It felt like an eternity until they arrived at the station. Harriet hurried towards the platform, feeling a little bit guilty about running away from her parents like that. Just a little, though. She would see them at Christmas anyways.

“Platform nine and three quarters,” huffed her mother, catching up with her and reading the ticket they had received months ago with the admission letter, “these British sure are weird…”

“You’re supposed to run through the wall, I think.” Harriet said unconvincingly, looking around to confirm that there weren’t any curious muggles looking at them.

“ _Through_ the wall?” Her father intervened, furrowing his brows. Harriet shrugged. Honestly, he should be used to it by now.

“Magic, dear, remember.” Said her mother.

Despite her many experiences with magic, the young witch was still somewhat overwhelmed when she crossed the barrier, a part of her mind waiting to crash against the stone instead of just sliding through it.

That’s magic for you.

The ‘Hogwarts Express’ – Harriet thought the name was hilarious – was leaving in the next five minutes, so there was little to no time to say goodbye. Both her mother and father had tears on their eyes, effusively hugging her and spewing out advice that she knew she wouldn’t outright follow, and soon she was saying goodbye from a train window, slowly leaving the station and entering a partially unknown world.

Harriet struggled a bit to find an empty compartment, but once she did, the dark-haired witch sprawled herself over the springy seats, heaving a tired sigh. The trip had just started, and she was already quite tired.

She prepared herself to spend a relaxing time alternating between reading a nice book and taking a nap, but life seemed to have other plans for her.

“Oi Fred, there’s a free one here! Leave those first years alone!”

_Please, not here._

The door slid partially open and Harriet looked up in annoyance, sitting up in a more normal position. Wasn’t there another place in the whole train? Whoever it was, they could go bother someone else.

“Whoops.”

Alas, the intruder fully entered the compartment. He was a tall guy, and the thing that stood out the most about him was his bright orange hair, somewhat dishevelled, as if he really didn’t care that much. There were freckles dotting his face, and an amused glint on his eyes that Harriet wasn’t sure she liked too much. He looked like trouble.

“This is the only empty one, you don’t mind, right?”

 _Well, actually, I do_.

She didn’t have time to formulate her answer, because the red-haired boy immediately turned around and yelled once again: “Fred!”

While the intruder – yes, she was determined to keep calling him that – made himself comfortable in the seat next to the door, ‘Fred’ appeared, every feature of his matching the ones of the stranger.

Twins, of course.

“Hey there,” he greeted Harriet easily, sitting in front of his brother and closing the door before facing him, “Lee’s coming in a while, he’s doing something or the other with Katie and Alicia. Where’s the notebook?”

Bewildered, Harriet observed the two redheads start a conversation between themselves about something she really didn’t understand, paying absolutely zero attention to her. Well, it wasn’t the complete tranquillity she had been looking for, but it was something, so, after gathering her bushy dark hair into a loose ponytail, the young witch quickly picked up a book from her bag and tried to get lost between its pages.

Some time passed as she read and the twins excitedly talked, until the door slid open again and a beaming boy appeared right behind it. Harriet glanced at him with annoyance, feeling like peace wouldn’t last much longer on the compartment, and she was right.

He, too, looked like trouble.

“Finally!” One of the twins exclaimed happily. Harriet had forgotten which was which.

“Did you get lost or what?”

The newcomer let out a laugh, shaking his braided hair and taking a seat next to one of the redheads while trying to read the contexts of their notebook. Harriet was, once again, ignored, at least, until his eyes found her.

“Who’s your friend?” The stranger elbowed the nearest twin and looked at her with what was meant to be a charming smile. “Lee Jordan, delighted to meet you.”

He sent her a wink and Harriet chose to ignore it, as the redheads shrugged.

“Actually, no idea.”

“What’s your name?”

The three of them were looking at her, and, although not a stranger to the attention, Harriet felt a little bit shy.

“Harriet. Kohl.”

If they were confused about her non-English surname, they hid it rather well.

“What house are you in?” Spoke Lee, giving her a curious look. “I don’t recall having seen you around…”

Harriet glanced down at her lap and then at them again, not too comfortable with the sudden interrogatory.

“I’m not in any house… yet.”

“Ah!” One of the twins exclaimed then, a look of interest on his face, “but you don’t look eleven by any means…”

“…so you must be a transfer student!” Finished the other.

They both had a mischievous feel to their grins, but Harriet, too preoccupied with having her first Hogwarts friends, let it slide, clearing her throat and smiling politely.

“I came this year from Germany, where my education was already finished, to take my NEWTs here. Seventh year.” She explained.

“Say no more,” said one of the twins with a broad grin, shaking her hand maybe a tad too effusively as his brother and Lee exchanged glances, “we’ll be your guides for the year! Fred and George Weasley, at your service.”

Seeing no harm on it, Harriet smiled genuinely back, not thinking for a moment that they could have some ulterior motive to be helping her so selflessly. She usually trusted people, only hoping it would turn out to be a good decision.

***

The first thing that impressed Harriet about Hogwarts was its immensity. They were approximating the castle on a carriage, where she, the twins and Lee had hopped up with a couple of girl friends of them just as they left the train. As they all happily chatted amongst themselves, she kept her eyes trained on the many turrets and stone walls that could be seen from where she was, remembering how small her old school was in comparison.

“If you think this is incredible, wait until you see the Great Hall.” George muttered, sitting beside her and noticing the girl’s admiring look.

Harriet smiled at him briefly and went back to soaking up every bit of the castle view she could.

Right after they crossed the enormous doors at the entrance, a severe-looking woman approached Harriet and led her away from the group, welcoming her briefly and talking about a Sorting of some kind. Fred, George and Lee had said something about the Hogwarts houses, but Harriet was grateful for the quick review.

“There are four houses in Hogwarts,” the Professor, whose name was Minerva McGonagall, explained to her as they walked through the ample hallways, “Gryffindor, which I’m the Head of, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each of them values a different set of qualities, and, once chosen, you will live in the common room of that house, sharing lessons with the other three.”

Harriet nodded, showing she understood. According to Fred and George, who belonged to Gryffindor, that house valued the brave, while Ravenclaw preferred the intelligent, Hufflepuff the nice ones and Slytherin the evil ones – something she refused to accept true. She didn’t really know which house she’d like to be in, though Slytherin didn’t sound too attractive, judging by the looks on the twins and Lee’s faces.

They finally arrived at the Headmaster’s office, where she met Dumbledore again, and she received brief instructions to wear what was called the Sorting Hat. Apparently, the first years were due to their own sorting in a few minutes, so it had to be quick.

_“Kohl, huh?”_

A voice echoed inside her head, almost making her jump, but soon she recomposed herself and wished it hurried up, nervously playing with one of the small hoops on her ears.

 _“These things take their own time, Miss. Let me see… hm… good heart, willing to learn and rather unafraid,”_ the hat listed some of her qualities, surprising the girl, who had never thought about herself like that, _“humble, too. Hufflepuff would fit you, Harriet Kohl, but you would not reach your entire potential. No, better place you in… GRYFFINDOR!”_

The last word was said out loud, leaving Harriet a little dazed as Professor McGonagall took the Sorting Hat from her head and sent her a tiny, appreciative smile. It felt like a rare event, so she sent one back, both towards her and towards Dumbledore.

“Now, if you don’t mind, there’s a feast waiting for you downstairs.” He said with a gentle tone and a glint in his eyes.

Harriet let herself be led by Professor McGonagall towards the Great Hall, patting her ponytail to make sure it didn’t look too sloppy, and smiled to herself as she remembered that the twins and Lee were also in Gryffindor. She was going to share the common room with her first friends, what were the odds?

As she walked down towards the table pointed by McGonagall, the first years entered the hall, providing a much-appreciated distraction for her to slip in the first empty seat she found. Of course, that was right between the twins and in front of Lee.

“We saved you a seat,” said one of them, which she thought to be Fred until proven otherwise.

“Knew you had it in you.” Supplied the other.

“Thank you.” She replied shyly, turning to look at the first years. “Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t have to do it in front of the whole school.”

“I’d have cheered for you.” Lee sent her a wink and Harriet grinned.

The Sorting soon ended, and they could dig into their food. Harriet listened as the twins filled her in about the current rumours at Hogwarts – they had just arrived and, somehow, she had managed to be one of the events most talked about. The centre of the rumours, which thankfully wasn’t her, was a woman who sat at the teachers’ table, wearing all pink and a smug smile.

“Angelina says she’s from the Ministry,” the one she called Fred on her head said, nodding towards a dark-skinned girl who was talking to Lee. “Here to spy on Dumbledore.”

“Why would the Ministry spy on the Headmaster of a school?” Harriet furrowed her brows, not quite understanding the situation as she ate her mashed potatoes.

“Oh, right, you don’t know the political situation,” George leaned closer, his voice turning into a whisper, “see that boy over there?” He pointed to a black-haired student in their same table, who was talking in a serious manner to two other people.

“That’s Harry Potter.” Fred supplied.

Harriet felt her mouth turn into an ‘o’. They had heard about Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived, in Germany, but she had never thought she would get to meet him. It was one of those stories that, if you didn’t know them closely, you felt inclined to think it was all invented.

But there he was. If she focused enough, she could even distinguish the infamous scar on his forehead.

“Well, he and Dumbledore affirm that You-Know-Who is back. And the Ministry didn’t like that, so there’s a whole campaign going on about how the old man is a nutter and Harry an idiot.”

She looked at them alternatively, and then at the pink-clad lady again. It was all a bit surreal, like a made-up story, but George held so much conviction on his voice that she was inclined to believe his words.

Back in Germany, not many people talked about Lord Voldemort, the British dark wizard that had caused so much terror on the islands years ago. They had their own problems to deal with. However, it was generally known that he had existed, that he had a lot of power, and that a baby had finished his dark reign.

If he really was back, there would be problems.

“And you believe he’s back.” She stared at the twins while poking at her meat with a fork.

“Yes.” The reply was in unison.

“Why?”

The two redheads shared glances, clearly questioning whether to tell her or not.

“Because Harry saw him,” Fred said eventually, a serious look on both his and his brother’s face, “and we believe Harry.”

“Oh.”

They ate in silence for a couple of minutes, Harriet mulling over the new information as she munched away the remains on her dish. Fortunately, Lee didn’t take long to enter the conversation, changing the topic to a much lighter one as they discussed Quidditch practices.

After the delicious desserts, Dumbledore stood and all the food vanished, everyone getting quiet for his speech. Harriet listened as he talked about forbidden places in the castle, rules and such, and her attention increased tenfold when the lady that supposedly came from the Ministry interrupted him, clearing her throat.

“What the fuck is she doing.” She heard Lee mutter and agreed with him.

“Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome.” The woman, who Dumbledore had introduced as Professor Umbridge, talked in a fake sweet voice that Harriet immediately disliked. “It is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say! I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all and I’m sure we’ll be very good friends!”

Harriet snorted, at the same time the twins said in unison: “yeah, sure.”

Professor Umbridge started then to go on a tirade about the Ministry of Magic and their plans of education, something everyone took as a signal to stop paying attention. Harriet tried to listen a bit more, not wanting to slack off on her very first day, but the constant murmurs and supressed laughs coming from either side of hers made it difficult.

“If this is going to be our DADA teacher, I think I’m not taking that NEWT this year.” Fred mumbled, arching his eyebrows.

“We know you wouldn’t pass it, so why bother,” George poked fun at him, making Harriet laugh.

Lee leaned forward with conspirative air as the twins started play-fighting behind Harriet.

“They say that and never study, but trust me, these two gits are actually clever.” He confided with a small smile, “don’t get drawn on their antics too much, or you’ll end up failing everything.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

He shrugged. “Just talking from experience.”

Harriet made a mental note to remember Lee’s words when exams approached and leaned back on the bench, breaking up the fighting twins.

“Will you stop now? I think she’s about to finish.”

Just as if her mind had been read, Professor Umbridge stopped talking and sat down while Dumbledore clapped, along with several members of the staff. No one seemed too pleased at her, Harriet noticed, and she had a feeling that Professor Umbridge wouldn’t be liked by her peers too much.

Thankfully, Dumbledore didn’t take long to dismiss them, and Harriet tiredly followed the twins, Lee, and their friends upstairs towards the Gryffindor common room. She quickly bid them goodbye once they reached it, walking towards the seventh-year dorm and undressing fast, eager to get into bed.

Once Harriet entered the bed and closed her eyes, she thought a little about the crazy day. Her dormmates were still downstairs, from where she could hear faint noises, so she appreciated the loneliness. She wondered what her parents would be doing and felt a little bit anxious about the start of lessons next day.

As she finally drifted to sleep, Harriet did so with a small smile on her face. Hogwarts was just another adventure waiting to happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English isn't my first language and I wrote this on a whim, so please feel free to point any mistakes you find!!


	3. Getting to know you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet gets to know the twins more, and makes new friends along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hasn't been proofread more than once and English isn't my native language so please, if you find any mistakes, feel free to tell me ^^.

The soft rays of sun that filtered through the half-drawn curtains were the first things Harriet saw upon waking up. The occupants of the remaining beds were still sleeping, so she grabbed her uniform and tiptoed to the bathroom to change in peace.

A shower later, she was fully awake, and quickly put on the tights, skirt and shirt, watching herself in the mirror. They hadn’t worn uniforms at the school in Germany, so it was quite new for Harriet to see herself wearing a clean white shirt with a red and gold tie. She gathered her bushy dark hair on a loose ponytail again; the look wasn’t too dressed up, and she preferred it that way. Somehow, it fit her style better.

“Go-od morning.” One of her dormmates greeted her with a yawn as Harriet left the bathroom. If she recalled correctly, she was Alicia, friends with the twins.

“Good morning.” She called back with a smile, happy to see a friendly face.

Not waiting for her dormmates, the German girl walked down the stairs towards the common room, wearing her dark jumper and robes with the red and gold ribbon lining them. She took a moment to admire the space, all with crimson and golden motives everywhere, plus comfortable-looking sofas, several tables and a fireplace.

Gryffindor was sure the fitting house for her, she decided, even though she hadn’t yet seen or met anyone from the others. It was where she felt at home.

The Great Hall was still a bit empty, considering it was only half past seven, so Harriet took a seat in the middle of the Gryffindor table, all alone. Her classmates and housemates were still strangers to her, considering she hadn’t bothered to talk to anyone but the twins and Lee the previous day, but she recognized that Harry Potter boy sitting nearby.

Taking a piece of toast and accompanying it with eggs, Harriet decided that, with or without friends, breakfast was breakfast.

“Quite the early bird, aren’t you?” The twins approached the girl not long after, sitting in front of her with identical grins.

“More like I went to sleep early.” She retorted, finishing up the last of her eggs.

One of the twins – honestly, she had to learn how to differentiate them – served himself some sausage, while the other went for the porridge. They both looked bright and awake, even though their uniforms were slightly rumpled, showing their usual carelessness.

Professor McGonagall went around handing out their timetables for the year, and Harriet quickly examined hers. The subjects weren’t too different from the ones in Germany, and a smile appeared on her face as she found that Charms, the one she was best at, right before lunch.

Seeing as the twins had started a conversation with Harry Potter and his friends, she decided not to interrupt them and instead started rummaging through her back, checking that her Charms textbook as there, as well as the Herbology one, since it was her first class.

“Hey, you’re a transfer, right?” Said a curious voice suddenly. Looking up and noticing it was directed towards her, Harriet focused her gaze on the one who had asked: a red-haired boy that looked way too similar to the twins.

“Yeah, from Germany.”

“Right! We haven’t introduced you,” one of the twins (Fred?) interjected them, gesturing between her and the three younger students. “Harriet, meet Ronald, our little brother.”

“Shut up Fred. I’m Ron.” He said, blushing a little and looking at Harriet again as both twins laughed.

“And I’m Hermione Granger.” A brown-haired girl sitting beside Ron spoke with a friendly smile, that Harriet returned.

The girl’s gaze turned then towards the dark-haired boy, who hadn’t said anything, even though she already knew who he was. He looked a bit awkward, probably not used to introducing himself.

“Harry Potter.”

Harriet smiled. “Nice to meet you all.”

“We were just talking about OWLs.” George filled her in, “telling them how half our year had breakdowns at the time.”

“That doesn’t sound too good.”

“Which school did you go to?” Hermione asked her with curiosity, “Durmstrang?”

She shook her head, smiling at the younger witch that clearly knew about other magic schools.

“It was a smaller one, not that famous.” Harriet replied. “What are OWLs, anyways?”

“Like NEWTs, but in fifth year.” Ron supplied. He looked rather scared. “Don’t you have those in Germany?”

“Yeah, they’re called the ZAG - _Zauberer Allgemeinen Grades_.” Her accent was a bit thick during the last part, and everyone looked at her in surprise. Surely, they knew she spoke German?

“Amazing.” Said Fred, the look on his face clearly showing that now, they hadn’t expected her to know German.

British people.

They left the Great Hall not long after that, Harriet accompanying them to Herbology class as they talked about selling something. From what she had heard them talk about with Ron, Harry and Hermione, the twins were planning on opening a joke shop after school, and she couldn’t help but feel curious about it.

“Did you make those?” She finally asked, referring to the Extendable Ears they were waving around. Fred nodded with a bright smile.

“Took us a lot of experimenting, but we have several things in stock now. Why, are you interested in anything?”

Harriet shook her head with a smile.

“I’ll leave the pranks to you two, for now.”

“Your loss.” George shrugged, but smiled, nonetheless.

They found Lee at the main staircase, and Harriet hung back talking with him as the twins started selling their products to first and second years that loitered around.

“They seem enthusiastic about this whole thing.” She commented, watching as they waved their arms around and announced their creations.

Lee nodded in agreement. “Fred and George have always liked pranks, and they’ve been working on this for the past two years at least. I reckon it’s their dream, to open a joke shop once we finish Hogwarts.”

“Sounds fun,” Harriet turned to look at him, leaning against the stone wall. “What’s your dream?”

“Er…” Lee looked a bit taken aback at the bold question, and Harriet noticed he seemed a little embarrassed too. “This is going to sound lame, but I’d like to work on the radio.”

“It’s not lame, I think it’d be cool!” Harriet grinned, imagining the boy as a radio host. Somewhat, it suited him.

“What about you, Harriet?”

“Oh, well…” She became lost in thought for a bit, a strange look on her face. “I don’t really know. Guess I’ll find out as I go.”

Lee nodded, and soon the twins joined them, ending their conversation there. The four of them walked down towards the greenhouses, where Fred explained that the Herbology lessons were hosted, ready to start the first class of the year.

***

The day went by smoothly, Harriet soon getting used to her new professors and discovering that British magic really wasn’t all that different from German one, even though the year was likely going to be a difficult one, with the NEWTs looming at the end and all that.

Fred and George proved to be quite the pranksters, too, almost driving Professor Sprout mad with their antics and having Professor McGonagall scold them twice on their afternoon lessons.

Well, they kind of had been looking for it.

She also discovered that everyone seemed to be crazy about Quidditch, and that rivalry between classes, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin, was rather strong. That didn’t stop her from making a few friends here and there, though, mostly Hufflepuff classmates with whom she pleasantly talked between classes.

“Are you on the Quidditch team or something?” She finally asked the twins at dinner, interrupting a long discussion about a new broom model.

“Of course!” George beamed, at the same time Fred spoke:

“We’re both beaters!”

“Oh… I see…” Harriet spoke slowly, looking between the two of them.

“You don’t have the slightest idea what a Beater is, do you?” George smirked.

“…we don’t really play Quidditch in Germany.”

“That’s why your national team is so bad.” Fred mused, earning a slight swat on his forearm.

The twins then plunged into a full-scale explanation of what a Beater was, along with the rest of the team positions and the characteristics of each house team. Harriet smiled as she listened, feeling as if, even though they had just met, she had known them all her life.

Some friendships were just born like that.

After promising more than ten times that she would go watch them train someday, Harriet left a bit early and started her way towards the Gryffindor Tower, wanting to get some homework done before going to sleep.

However, she hadn’t gotten past the main hall when someone crashed onto her, almost sending the both of them to the ground.

“Oof.” She mumbled, stumbling back a little in surprise.

“…sorry.”

The stranger’s voice seemed reluctant, and as soon as her eyes fixed into his, Harriet noticed he didn’t look sorry at all. She also noticed that he was a good head taller than her, and that his stance seemed fairly intimidating.

His robes were lined with blue and silver, which told her he was a Ravenclaw.

“Watch where you’re going next time.” He spat, eyes cold, and she felt her short fuse quickly becoming even shorter.

“Well, maybe if you don’t ram straight into me!”

He looked annoyed and about to yell back at her, when someone else interrupted their not-so-pleasant conversation.

“Everything alright, Fernsby?”

Harriet whipped her head towards the newcomer, catching a flash of green somewhere. She felt her anger still boiling inside of her but controlled herself.

Fernsby just sent another glare her way and stalked away towards the Great Hall, leaving her alone with the person she had just discovered to be a Slytherin Prefect, judging by the silver badge and the green-lined robes.

“What was his deal?” She asked him, crossing her arms. “Almost knocked me to the damn floor.”

“Yeah… that’s Marcus Fernsby for you.” The Prefect looked almost amused; his eyes almost hidden behind a golden, curly mop of hair but shining nonetheless. “Just avoid him, he tends to hold grudges.”

“I’ll try.” Harriet mumbled, glancing at the Great Halls and then back at the boy. “Thank you…”

“Adrian Marlowe, nice to meet you.”

The girl smiled.

“I’m Harriet Kohl.”

“Cool surname, Harriet.” Adrian sent her an easy-going smile, then added, “well it’s been nice and all but I’ve gotta eat something. See ya!”

Harriet watched the blonde Prefect dash into the Great Hall with a small smile still on her face, and then resumed her walking towards the common room.

The twins didn’t take long to catch up with her as she finished the last of her Charms homework, both throwing themselves into the comfy armchairs of the Gryffindor common room as they talked about some prank they were considering to pull sometime soon.

 _Why me?_ She wondered, observing how their freckled faces split in identical grins and their eyes shone like stars, _why did they become friends with me?_

Almost as if he had read her mind, George suddenly turned to her, arching one eyebrow when he caught her looking at him.

“Care for a game of chess, Miss Kohl?”

“Why, yes, Mr Weasley.” She laughed at the fake formality, pushing her book and parchment aside as the redhead brought the chess board.

They played for a bit, bickering when their pieces were captured and trying to guess the other’s strategy. Harriet felt absolutely comfortable with him, even though they had only known each other for a day and a half, and couldn’t help but smile a little more at the thought.

She hadn’t had many friends back in Germany, especially not ones that made her laugh as much as Fred, George and Lee did, so finding someone like them was a relief for her. Harriet was an outgoing girl, but you can’t be outgoing if you don’t have any friendly faces around.

“What are you thinking about?” George asked, interrupting her train of thought. She smiled sheepishly, pointedly looking at the chess pieces.

“I was thinking that I’m glad I got to know you three.”

The redhead grinned at her.

“Well we’re glad to know you too!”

Harriet felt her smile widen at his words, feeling genuinely happy for once.

“Thank you, George. Oh, and Queen to B2. Checkmate.”

“Bloody hell.”

She laughed again and did a little victory dance upon seeing his opponent’s surprise and defeat, to which George replied very maturely by doing a face and rolling his eyes. Since the game was finished, they put away the board and the pieces and sat with Fred near the fireplace, where he was talking to Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson.

“Nice, you finished. Who won?” He inquired as soon as they made themselves comfortable on the floor. Harriet grinned.

“Me, of course.”

Fred high-fived her, much to George’s chagrin, and then turned his attention towards the two other girls.

“You know each other already, right? Angelina, Alicia, this is Harriet.”

“From the dorm, yeah.” Harriet smiled at them, who reciprocated the gesture.

“Everyone’s talking about the German transfer,” Angelina said bluntly, looking at her with a friendly smile, “you’re kind of in the centre of the rumour mill… along with Umbridge and Hagrid, of course.”

Pushing aside the embarrassment of being talked about among all the students, Harriet felt curiosity at the last name Angelina mentioned, not having heard it before.

“Hagrid? Who’s that?”

Fred and George shared a glance, so fast that no one could notice it, but Alicia didn’t hesitate to talk with a serious look on her face.

“He’s like the groundkeeper, also was the Care of Magical Creatures teacher during the past two years,” she quickly explained. “But this year, he isn’t here.”

“Oh.” Harriet noticed the serious looks on everyone’s faces and couldn’t help but ask, “and why is that weird?”

“Well…” Fred hesitated a little, but spoke anyways in a low voice, “last year we learned he’s a half giant…”

“And he supports Dumbledore.” Angelina said, “which is not inherently bad, I mean.” She quickly added after the look George sent her way.

Harriet took in their words with surprise. Half giants were said to be dangerous towards humans, but the way Fred and George seemed to defend him wordlessly made her feel inclined to think that Hagrid wasn’t like that. The groundkeeper seemed to have been at Hogwarts for several years, and she was fairly sure Dumbledore wouldn’t let someone dangerous near the students.

“Oh, wow… I hope he shows up.” She said awkwardly, and the conversation ended there.

It was already nearing eleven when Harriet, Alicia and Angelina decided to retreat to their dorm and get ready for sleep, after a long discussion about exactly how much of a pain in the ass Professor Umbridge seemed to be.

The three of them were fast friends, talking happily until they were in bed and wishing each other good night. Harriet smiled all the time, and even though sometimes Angelina was a tad too brash or Alicia a bit too boy-crazy, she couldn’t help but sigh contentedly at having found friends so similar to her.


	4. Quidditch try-outs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet finds out something about the twins and decides that house rivalry is stupid.

The first week at Hogwarts passed by like a breeze. Harriet kept mostly around the twins, Lee and the girls, laughing at their antics or discussing lessons, and she also had the pleasure to find that Adrian Marlowe was in her Ancient Runes class, so they started a budding friendship by sitting together in the lessons that were held twice a week.

Overall, Harriet felt happy around her newfound friends, and by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, she could assure her parents via letter that Hogwarts was proving to be an amazing place and that she had met plenty of nice people.

“I’m going to the Owlery, can anyone point me in the general direction?” She announced to the little group as the letter was finished with a flourish of her quill. They had been all hanging around on the common room after lunch, since they had all a free period.

Angelina and Alicia, too busy arguing over an article on _Witch Weekly_ , didn’t even hear her, but George stood up from his chair with a grin on his face, stretching out his arms.

“I can walk you, come on.”

Harriet frowned slightly, glancing at the Transfiguration books that laid strewn over the table.

“Not until you finish your homework.”

“I’m almost finished anyways.” He countered back.

Fred looked like he was about to stand up too, so Harriet decided to stop him or else their homework would never be done. The fact that they only made it twice a week was already bad enough, better not get it down to once a week.

“Okay, let’s go, but _please_ for Merlin’s sake, finish it later. I don’t want McGonagall wasting another ten minutes lecturing you on Monday.” She said sternly.

“Alright, alright, just let’s go.”

The Owlery wasn’t too far from the Gryffindor Tower, and it occupied an entire tower by itself. On the way, George showed her several secret passages and shortcuts, telling her about the many times he and Fred had snuck around at night to set up pranks or just for the sake of it.

Harriet liked knowing about the passages, since it could be a fast way to get to class whenever she got lost and wondered if she would ever go on an adventure with the twins at night. It sure seemed exciting, and even though she could sometimes look like a goody-two-shoes, Harriet was always down for a little harmless fun.

“Is it for your parents?” George asked once they reached the top of the Owlery, pushing the wooden door open and motioning her to step in.

She nodded, scrunching up his face at the disgusting smell of bird excrements that came from the place. No one else seemed to be there, so she took her time to look at each and every owl while talking to George.

“They want me to write every week or so, my father gets antsy if I don’t.” She briefly explained, looking at a tawny owl. “Fascinating animals, owls, don’t you think?”

George seemed a bit confused about the topic change, but he quickly recovered himself and smiled at her, noticing how the afternoon sun fell bright over her skin and made it almost glow.

“You should meet Errol, my family owl. It’d make you stop thinking they’re fascinating.” He said, chuckling, and Harriet turned to look at him with almost sparkling grey eyes.

“I’d like to.” She said, softly. “But seriously, don’t you think it’s impressive? The way they know how to carry letters and where the receiver is… they’re so intelligent, it’s admirable.”

“Yeah, they are.” George agreed, smiling a little.

Harriet finally picked one pretty brown owl and attached the letter to the animal, whispering the address and name of her parents just in case before seeing it take off and soar the afternoon sky. Both she and George stood by the window, seeing the sun high in the sky, and she couldn’t help but think how beautiful everything looked under that bright light – including the boy next to her.

“Well,” she cleared her throat, stepping back from the window, “let’s go back.”

“Ladies first.”

They walked back to the common room silently, each submerged into their own thoughts, sneaking glances to one another every so often.

“ _Mimbuius mimbletonia_.” George said the password once they were in front of the Fat Lady, and as they stepped into the portrait hole, they could hear the commotion inside the room.

“… and I’ve told you a dozen times, Fred! You cannot do this in here!”

The stern voice of Hermione was recognizable even if Harriet hadn’t seen her yet. She was standing in front of Fred with her arms crossed, while the redhead just smirked lightly with a group of first years standing behind him.

“What is she yelling about?” She turned to ask George, but found him missing, and instead already by his brother’s side. “Oh, well.”

Angelina and Alicia were still sitting on a couch by the fire, so Harriet joined them with a sigh, glancing with curiosity at where Hermione was scolding the twins.

“What’s happening?” She asked the girls, who didn’t seem too pleased with the situation either.

“Fred tried to test their products on the first years… _again_.” Alicia quickly explained, frowning.

Harriet felt her eyes widen. Testing products? On eleven-year-olds? She had always thought the twins were just harmlessly mischievous at best, but that was clearly out of line, a stoop too low for them.

“That’s not okay.” She said uncomfortably, and both girls shrugged. Her frowning face met George’s, and Harriet thought she saw his smirk faltering a little. “I think I’ll go for a walk.”

She bid her two dormmates goodbye and, after promising to be there at five to watch Quidditch try-outs, stepped out of the portrait hole again, thinking that a walk around the grounds would clear her mind and do her some good.

The hallways were almost eerily devoid of people, everyone either in class or in their common rooms being productive. She walked past the Library, making a mental note to check it out sometime next week, and past a classroom with the door half-open, where she could see Professor Flitwick explaining something and Adrian taking notes amongst his Slytherin classmates.

Once she reached the grounds, Harriet let her feet take her towards the closest tree and sat under its shadow, enjoying one of the last days of warmth that September brought them. She discarded her robes too, staying only in her jumper, shirt and slacks, and pulled her wand out with the intention of practicing some of the spells from the last Charms lesson.

“ _Defodio_.” She tried the gouging spell on the ground in front of her, but it didn’t budge. Probably the wrist movement wasn’t done right.

“Should’ve brought my notes here.” Harriet mumbled to herself, trying hard to remember what Flitwick had said about the spell on Wednesday. She tried again. “ _Defodio_.”

This time, a small hole was carved into the earth, making her smile happily. She tried a couple times more, making the hole bigger and deeper, and then it was time for the non-verbal attempt.

Since in Germany wizards didn’t learn non-verbal magic at school, Harriet had found it rather complicated in her first Charms class. According to Fred, they had practiced it on the past year in Defence Against the Dark Arts but seeing how boring Professor Umbridge had made their first two lessons, Harriet doubted she would get much training there.

It annoyed her to no end the way Umbridge seemed to be throwing away their entire Defence Against the Dark Arts year, insisting that they should only learn theoretical magic for their NEWTs – _yeah, and that’s why the practical exam exists_ , Harriet had thought, but didn’t dare speak out loud.

She just hoped it changed soon, or else she would fail her DADA exam and all the year at Hogwarts would be wasted.

The bell signalling the end of a class period rung in the distance, making Harriet look up from the patch of dirt she had been focusing on. It was probably time to go back to the common room, she thought, maybe she could get some light reading done before the Quidditch try-outs.

“Hey, Kohl!”

Harriet heard someone calling her from behind as she was about to climb up the main staircase, turning around and seeing Adrian looking at her with an amused look, just walking out from the Charms hallway.

“I told you, just call me Harriet.” She chastised him lightly, chuckling as she walked towards the Slytherin Prefect.

“We’ll see,” he retorted playfully, dodging a swat in the arm just in time. “How’s everything going?”

The Gryffindor shrugged, putting her hands on the pockets of her slacks.

“Alright, I guess. A lot of work though.”

“Yeah… seventh year is the worst.” Adrian shared her opinion, laughing a little as he scratched the back of his neck. “Anyways, are you doing anything tomorrow?”

Harriet mentally reviewed her weekend plans, remembering she had promised Angelina and Alicia to hang out on Saturday evening.

“I’m free in the morning.” She smiled at him. “Why?”

“Uh… I think I need help with Ancient Runes, got stuck on the last essay,” he explained, looking a little embarrassed, as if he wasn’t used to asking for help. “I thought we could meet in the Library and write our essays together, if you’d like?”

“Okay!” Harriet accepted excitedly, glad to have someone she could study with. Over the past week she had learn that, as long as the twins were in the common room, it wasn’t the most appropriate place for doing serious work.

“Great,” Adrian smiled, his blonde fringe falling over his eyes, “see you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

With a new pep in her step, the black-haired witch made her way into the Gryffindor common room, quickly locating Lee Jordan listening to the radio in one armchair. She joined him and they chatted for a while about music and whatnot, until five o’clock came around.

“You’re going to try-outs, right?” Harriet asked him, who nodded.

“Never miss them, I need material to comment on during the next Quidditch game.” He grinned.

They walked down towards the Quidditch pitch, where several people already stood with their uniforms and brooms at the ready. Harriet pointed towards the bleachers and both sat there, watching Angelina instruct the aspiring players around.

Her grey eyes soon found the twins, who stood to the side looking rather bored. The memory of what Alicia had told her was still fresh on her mind, and she couldn’t help but scowl a little and hastily glance away, focusing on the Chasers.

“Something wrong?” Lee asked with a knowing look. He had caught her.

“It’s nothing,” Harriet tried to wave it away, but he kept looking at her, so she sighed and gave in. “Alicia told me they test their products on first years, and I don’t agree with that, morally.”

There was a pause as Lee pensively looked at the first aspiring Keeper positioning himself at the foot of the three high goalposts.

“Before the first years, do you know who they test their products on?” He finally asked, turning to look at Harriet with serious eyes.

“Who?”

“Themselves.”

“Oh.”

It made sense, Harriet thought, that they first tried if they were safe on themselves before releasing them onto the market or other testers, and she immediately felt bad for having thought that they were exploiting the first years. In a way, they still were, but as long as it wasn’t dangerous, and the kids consented to it…

“Look, they’re starting.” Lee pulled her out of her thoughts as he pointed to the first aspirant, hovering in front of the hoops.

One of the Chasers, a girl with blonde hair that Harriet hadn’t met yet, started throwing the Quaffle at him, and scored twice in around ten seconds.

“That’s pretty bad.” She commented, making Lee laugh.

“There’s always a few like these, singing up and thinking it’s an easy job. Angelina always sends them back to where they came from.”

As the sky started to get darker, Harriet squinted to see the fifth person, towards whom one of the twins was currently sending a Bludger that she dodged exceptionally.

She had to admit, the twins handled themselves well on the air. They zoomed around and kicked Bludgers back and forth with ease, making her wonder how it would feel to be up there. By the time the sixth aspirant appeared, Harriet wished to see the Quidditch game soon, completely immersed in the dynamics of the try-outs.

“Now they’re going to announce who gets the spot.” Lee explained, as they looked at the players all walking closer towards Angelina. Harriet noticed that Ron was amongst them and regretted not having been able to see him play in the darkness.

They watched closely as Angelina dismissed all the aspirants, until only Ron remained, and cheered at him with big smiles on their faces. The twins noticed them on the stands and waved before running towards their little brother and ruffling his hair.

“Well, that was cool.” Harriet smiled brightly at Lee, who nodded in agreement.

“Wait until you see the real game, though.”

Both of them waited until the team left the lockers and greeted Fred and George happily. The twins were dead set on throwing a party for Ron, who looked rather flustered, so they all went to the common room talking and laughing loudly.

“So,” George walked closer to Harriet and slung an arm over her shoulders with a wide grin, “did you like Quidditch?”

“Plenty.” She beamed up at him, noticing the good twenty centimetres of height that separated them. “I can’t wait to see the match.”

“Well you can always come see us training,” the redhead suggested with amusement, “it’s every Saturday morning after breakfast and some weekday evenings.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Harriet promised, but then remembered something. “Oh, but not tomorrow though. I told Adrian we could study at the Library in the morning.”

“Adrian?” Fred suddenly butted in, followed by the curious glances of Angelina, Alicia and Lee, “who’s Adrian?”

“…a friend?” She replied, a bit taken aback at the sudden questioning. “He’s on my Ancient Runes class, I thought I told you about him.”

“Adrian Marlowe, by any chance?” Alicia then asked thoughtfully. Harriet nodded. “Oh, he’s nice, I knew him last year. Shame he’s in Slytherin though.”

Harriet felt George’s eyes boring holes on her, his arm still around her shoulders as she looked up at him again with one eyebrow arched.

“What? You know I don’t support house rivalry.”

He slid off his arm, shrugging.

“Whatever.”

The rest of the walk was a bit tense, at least for Harriet. The girls talked happily with Lee about the upcoming party, while Fred and George mumbled about something behind them, and Harriet just walked silently, thinking over the recent conversation.

She had known since day one that Gryffindor and Slytherin had an ongoing row amongst them, and that things could get quite nasty sometimes with hexes and stuff, but hadn’t given it much thought until that moment.

Once they reached the common room, the twins left their brooms at their dormitory and dashed downstairs with Lee, claiming they were going “for supplies”, whatever that was. That left Harriet, Angelina and Alicia in charge of the music, while other Gryffindors slowly started joining the party, everyone congratulating Ron for making it into the team.

“We’re here!” The twins yelled fifteen minutes later, making a grand entrance with Lee through the portrait hole, arms full of butterbeer and sandwiches.

Everyone cheered, but, as Harriet looked at George and found him ignoring her, she felt way too upset about it. They had a stupid stance in the “argument”, she was not going to stop being friends with Adrian because of it.

Feeling too tired for the party, Harriet just shook her head and walked upstairs towards her dormitory, deciding to just go to sleep. Next day would be a new day.


	5. Adrian Marlowe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrian Marlowe, a girls' night and Weasley shenanigans. What else could Harriet ask for in her first weekend at Hogwarts?

As soon as she entered the Library for the first time, Harriet decided she would spend a lot of time there during the following year. It was a quiet place, full of rows and rows of shelves that held magic books of every subject, and the golden rays of sunshine that entered through its tall windows gave it a relaxing atmosphere.

Since it was a Saturday morning, right after breakfast, there were very few students around, and Harriet was free to choose whatever table she liked. She sat near the door, so Adrian could spot her easily, and pulled out her books, parchment and runes dictionary, all ready to take the essay by storm.

“Good morning.” Adrian greeted her with shining eyes, looking genuinely happy to see her.

“Hey, I saved you a seat.” Harriet smiled back, gesturing to the empty table and making him chuckle.

They started working on their respective essays, asking questions every so often and sharing the dictionary when necessary. Harriet solved any doubts Adrian could have, being rather skilled at the subject herself, and both managed to finish their work in little under an hour.

“Professor Babbling said we needed some bibliography, but since we just took it all from the things she said in class, I’m going to look for a book to put its reference or something.” She informed as they put down their quills, sighing. Adrian grinned at her idea, agreeing with her.

“That’s clever.”

Humming under her breath, the dark-haired witch wandered among the shelves at the back of the Library, looking for the Ancient Runes section as she slid her finger over the rough and worn-out volumes.

It never ceased to amaze her just how much magic could do; how wide its universe was. Having grown in a more muggle environment, Harriet had never experienced magic fully until her school years, and those compared to Hogwarts were nothing. She wished to live a thousand years, just so that she could learn everything inside its walls and in those books.

The fact that she would only stay one year at the magic school saddened her more than she cared to admit.

“You took your time.” Adrian teased her once she got back to the table, an old-looking book on her hands.

“Couldn’t find the section.”

After finishing with the runes, each of them started digging into their own homework. Even though it was just the first week of the school year, all the teachers had made sure to show the seventh years that the NEWTs were approaching, and thus had sent quite a lot of work for them to do.

Halfway through her Herbology essay on Sneezewort, Harriet could not take it anymore. She had to ask him the question that had been circling her head ever since the night before.

“Hey, Adrian,” she muttered, not forgetting they were still under the watchful eye of Madam Pince, the librarian, “can I ask you a question?”

The blonde boy arched his eyebrows, looking at her through his curly fringe with curiosity.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Do people in Slytherin automatically hate all Gryffindors?”

Adrian looked at her incredulously, the clear proof that it was not like that sitting right before him. However, he understood what she meant, and let out a long, tired sigh.

“Most do. Gryffindors hate us back, too.” He simply said.

“And why is that?” Harriet inquired, curious in the matter.

“I don’t know,” the boy shrugged, looking at her and then back at his essay, “it has been like that for centuries. I will admit, most Gryffindors feel like too much for me, with their boasting and arrogant attitude, but at the same time I am aware that there are dark wizards in Slytherin, and we’re not the friendliest crowd.”

Harriet nodded, taking in his words. It was true that Gryffindors were usually the noisiest among the four houses, but then again, every house had its flaws. Ravenclaws often were too pretentious, Hufflepuffs too chill and Slytherins too mean, but that was just people, human nature. No one was perfect.

Still not satisfied with Adrian’s words, she spoke once more.

“My friends, in Gryffindor, they seemed displeased that I was friends with you, a Slytherin.”

Adrian shrugged, a wary glint on his eyes.

“That’s their problem, I guess.” He looked at her, his dark eyes boring into her grey ones. “We’re friends, right?”

“We are.” Harriet smiled, and so did he.

“Then it’s settled.”

***

Harriet met with Angelina and Alicia on the evening after dinner, the three of them happily giggling on the common room as they stole the radio and decided to go to their dorm and talk there. Angelina was in charge of the music, alternating between muggle and wizard songs, while Alicia was leafing through several numbers of _Witch Weekly_ and _Which Broomstick?_

They settled in the middle of the dorm, taking a few spare blankets so the floor wouldn’t get too cold and, as Alicia began pulling out a box from her trunk, Harriet wondered what would they like to do in a “girls’ night”.

“I brought some nail polish from home, we could try it,” the dark-haired Chaser announced excitedly, showing them three small bottles of different colours that she picked from the box.

“My mom told me once about a spell that made them last longer.” Said Harriet.

“Great! We can use it,” Alicia beamed at Angelina, who seemed the least enticed by the idea. “Last month on _Witch Weekly_ I found an article about spells for nail polish so we can take a look too.”

The three girls started to work, applying the polish while they laughed at Angelina’s terrible choice of music – _Celestina Warbeck,_ really? – and it was not long before the boy-talk started. It was to be expected if they were going to have a conventional girls’ night, or at least one that adjusted to the American movie standards.

“So,” Alicia started, grinning at Harriet innocently, “Adrian Marlowe, huh?”

Angelina looked suddenly very interested in the conversation too, and Harriet laughed nervously, trying to downplay it a little so that her two friends did not get the wrong idea.

“He’s nice, we just studied together this morning.”

“Oh… studied.” Angelina wiggled her eyebrows, making the other two girls laugh. “You know, Fred asked me to study with him once. I thought he was coming down with a fever, but nah, he was just trying to spend time with me.”

“Fred? Studying?” Harriet laughed louder. “I’d think he’s been replaced by someone else!”

“And how did your little study session go?” Alicia pried, eager to know the details about Adrian.

Harriet shrugged.

“It went normally, I think. We just… studied. And that’s it. We also settled that we’re friends, so I hope nothing more is coming from there.” She explained. To say the truth, Adrian was handsome and nice, he would make a good boyfriend, but there was something that just did not click with him, and Harriet was not exactly ready to rush into a relationship.

“Bo-ring.” Said Angelina, blowing her freshly painted nails. “It’s seventh year! You two should get a move on with boys, now that we can.”

Alicia laughed and shook her head. “Like you with Fred, for example?”

Not having noticed whether Fred liked Angelina or not, Harriet could not help but ask, feeling like she was missing out on something.

“But are you and Fred like… dating?” She asked Angelina, who laughed again.

“To be honest? I don’t know?” The Chaser replied, “last year he asked me to the Yule Ball – yeah there was a dance at Christmas it was crazy – and I actually thought we had something. But there was something else going on, and we distanced before things could go further.”

Alicia looked serious now, probably annoyed that Fred had played like that with her friend, but Angelina seemed like she honestly did not mind. That, or she was an incredibly talented actress.

“Something else?” Harriet blurted out before she could control herself.

“They acted weird last year, Fred and George. All the time whispering among themselves, not even Lee could join in. But whatever it was, it’s over now, so no point in thinking about it now.” Alicia explained, looking unamused at the memory.

“Anyways,” Angelina interjected, probably tired of the conversation topic, “What about you, Alicia? Any crushes you might want to tell us about?”

There was a sudden change in the atmosphere of the room, almost tangible, and Harriet noticed how Alicia abruptly appeared way more closed off that she usually was, wringing her hands together and looking at anything but her friends. She terrible at hiding things, Harriet thought, but it was not her business anyways.

“I, uh… I’m alright. Everything’s alright. No crushes, nope, not at all.”

Angelina shrugged, knowing when it was best not to pry.

A Weird Sisters song started playing on the radio and the atmosphere changed completely, a huge smile appearing on both Chasers’ faces. Harriet did not know the song, since at her own home they just played muggle music, but she had to admit the rhythm was captivating.

“I love this one! Turn up the volume!” Alicia demanded excitedly.

The two girls pulled themselves to their feet and started dancing wildly, coaxing Harriet into doing the same until she too was dancing. It was fun, she thought, waving her arms around with her friends as they yelled and laughed together. She felt almost entranced by the fast-paced music and decided that she would never forget that moment.

The world spun as the three girls danced without a care in the world, the music enveloping them and helping them forget about their woes, if they had any. It was magical.

“That was amazing, we have to do this more!” Alicia sighed with exhaustion after the song ended, sprawling herself on the closest bed, which turned to be Angelina’s.

“It really was.” Said Harriet, a content smile on her lips. She found a place in the floor again, resting against one of the beds, and looked up at Angelina, who was turning down the volume of the radio.

Not five minutes later, Angelina started hitting Alicia with a pillow so she would get off her bed, and the party was on again.

As she laughed and jumped out of the way to not be hit by a rogue pillow, Harriet realized she could not have found better friends at Hogwarts, and that she felt at home there. Hogwarts, and specifically the seventh-year, Gryffindor dormitory, was her place to be.

The party ended an hour or two after the pillow fight, Alicia walking down to the common room to return the stolen radio while Angelina and Harriet prepared for bed. The latter put on her favourite pyjamas – plaid soft pants and an old black T-shirt she had found thrown around her house. It still smelled like home sometimes, and it made her comfortable every night.

Setting her uniform and robes on the chair next to her bed, Harriet slipped under the covers with a sleepy smile, at the same time Angelina finally left the toilet and Alicia entered the dorm, all ready to sleep.

“Good night, girls.” She called out.

“Good night.” They replied in unison.

As soon as her head touched the pillow, Harriet was out like a light.

\---

_The room was dark, only a sliver of moonlight filtering through the window, but without even seeing her surroundings, Harriet knew where she was. Back at her old school in Germany._

_She could hear the light breathing of the girls she shared a room with, all of them were sleeping peacefully. However, she felt restless, so the dark-haired girl jumped out of her bed and padded across the room, opening the door and facing the familiar corridor that led to the common areas._

_Oh, how she had missed her old school._

_Everything was silent as she walked through the main areas of the school and reached the teachers’ department. Why was she going there, anyways? She knew full well that walking around at night would get her sanctioned, but there she was, doing it anyways, following some weird impulse._

_“Fun, isn’t it?”_

_A voice behind her startled Harriet, and she turned around slowly to face the two identical figures that stood in the darkness. Even with the lack of light, she could sense that they were smirking._

_“What are you doing here?”_

_The twins laughed, so identical it was eerie._

_“Why wouldn’t we be here?”_

_Harriet looked around and noticed that she was standing in the middle of a Hogwarts hallway, her old school completely gone. The twins were now walking off into the distance, the darkness swallowing them up._

_“Wait! I don’t know how to go back to the tower!” She yelled after them, but only an echo of laugher came back._

_Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, the unknown darkness suddenly very scary. There was a light tapping on her head, insistent, almost urgent, and she swatted at it with her hand… finding nothing._

_“Leave me alone.” Harriet sobbed, waving her hands around. Whatever it was, it kept tapping at her, almost tauntingly…_

Harriet woke up with a start, opening her eyes wide in the darkness that engulfed the dormitory. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest, the remaining adrenaline from the dream still coursing her veins.

And the tapping was still there.

She felt around her nightstand until the familiar roughness of her wand found her hand, then whispering _Lumos_ and creating light to see her surroundings better. That is how she found the culprit of the constant tapping: a paper bird that was currently flying in circles around her head.

“What in the name of Merlin…” She muttered, reaching out a hand slowly and grabbing it, feeling the paper grow limp on her palm.

Holding her wand with her teeth, Harriet quickly flattened it out, discovering a message hastily scribbled between its folds with black ink and a familiar handwriting.

_Adventure is waiting for you at the common room_

A smile appeared on her face, the last remains of sleep disappearing as she suddenly felt very much awake. She knew who was behind all that, and Harriet would not like to disappoint the twins. Plus, an adventure in the middle of the night seemed exciting.

Dressing quickly and soundlessly on her school robes and the first shoes she found – worn out sneakers her mother always insisted she threw out – Harriet grabbed her wand and gathered her messy black hair into a quick braid as she walked down the dormitory stairs towards the common room.

“I’m here.” She muttered in the darkness of the room, seeing only the silhouettes of the furniture around. For a moment, Harriet felt inclined to think that the twins were just playing a prank on her, until she felt something touch her shoulder from behind.

“Thank you, now Fred owes me five sickles.” A voice, belonging to George Weasley, whispered on her left ear, his arm slung around her shoulders.

“Shove it, George,” came Fred’s voice from her right, and their wands suddenly casted alight at the same time.

Harriet looked at them, both grinning mischievously under the dim light of their wands. Fred was holding a bag on one hand, while George waved around a piece of parchment.

“Let’s go, shall we?” Said Fred, and the three of them started their journey into the darkness.

They stealthily stepped out of the portrait hole without waking up the Fat Lady in the process, and it was only when they were safely resting at an alcove in that same hallway that Harriet asked the question that was going around her mind.

“So, what are we doing exactly?”

The twins lightened up their wands again and so did she, their faces all grinning in the dim light. Harriet noticed that the piece of parchment in George’s hands was now open, but still blank.

“Just a bit of harmless fun, for once.” Fred explained with glinting eyes, “paying a long overdue visit to our friend Argus Filch.”

“That’s… the caretaker, right?” She asked, still not too familiar with the staff at Hogwarts.

George nodded. “He loves us.”

“Anyway George, better get on with it,” Fred urged his brother, who pointed his wand at the parchment.

“Sure. _I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good_.”

Before Harriet’s surprised eyes, the apparently blank parchment suddenly was filled with black ink, that started right where George’s wand had touched and spread all over it, forming what looked like…

“A map of Hogwarts?” She muttered, shocked, her eyes finding the little footsteps and name labels that dotted the map.

“Not any map, dear Harriet,” Fred explained with a smirk, “ _the_ map. With every secret passage and, most importantly, the location of everyone in the castle.”

“Amazing…” She mumbled in awe, seeing the little tag with the name _Harriet Kohl_ right between the two tags named _Frederick Weasley_ and _George Weasley_. “Frederick.” She sniggered.

“Shut up.” Said Fred. “Anyways, we have work to do.”

“Are you ready?” George asked her with his voice full of excitement. Harriet nodded and smiled.

“One hundred percent.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter than usual! I'm trying to write around 2.5k - 2.7k words per chapter, so it will usually be between those marks, but with this one I just couldn't hold back!  
> A big thanks to everyone reading, and to the three people that left kudos, you inspire me to go on! As always, if there are any mistakes please, please inform me, and feel free to comment on anything that sparks your attention! :)


	6. Late-night adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pranking with the twins is fun, but it has its consequences.

The twins moved expertly around the hallways, not making a sound as they frequently stopped to check the map and see that the dot labelled _Argus Filch_ was not in their path. Harriet noticed that they seemed to be monitoring the one that said _Severus Snape_ too, and shivered when she remembered the piercing glare of the Potions teacher, at the same time being glad that she was not taking that subject.

“We took it from Harry, just this night.” George confided in a whisper as they hid behind a suit of armour, waiting for Filch to head away from the hallway there were about to step in.

“The map belongs to Harry?” Harriet asked, surprised. Although famous, she had gotten the impression that the young Potter liked to go unnoticed, and she tried to imagine him being up to no good in the middle of the night. It sort of fitted him, in a weird way.

“Technically, yes. We gave it to him.” Said Fred, standing behind them and monitoring the hallway, then turning to face Harriet. “We found it on our first year, Filch’s office.”

“Wow,” Harriet turned her eyes to the map again, seeing that Filch was walking away from where they were, “looks like advanced magic, to be honest.”

“Whoever they were, Moony, Padfoot, Prongs and Wormtail sure were incredible wizards.” George simply said, referring to the creators of the map with thinly veiled admiration. “Filch’s just gone, let’s go.”

The three of them snuck through the halls until they arrived at the caretaker’s office. No one was around, and the torches that were alight casted enough light to allow them to see freely without wands.

Harriet watched with admiration as George took a hairpin from his jeans’ pocket and started fumbling with the lock, while Fred rummaged around in the bag he carried.

“Recently, we’ve discovered that the muggle way of thinking sometimes works best,” he started to explain, glancing at Harriet with a smirk, “so we acquired a muggle prank book during the summer and have completely memorized it.”

“Amazing. So now you’re doing muggle pranks?”

“Sort of,” George intervened from the door, “we figured it would be just splendid to mix the two worlds… and the results can be rather amazing.”

The door finally opened and the three Gryffindors quietly stepped inside. Harriet looked around at the many file cabinets and chains that hung from the ceiling, a shudder going through her when she thought of the old punishments that could have taken place there. She then turned to Fred, who was retrieving Dungbombs and what looked like rolls of plastic wrap from the bag.

“Plastic wrap?” She asked laughingly, “what for?”

“You’ll see.”

Harriet was instructed to keep watch on the Marauders’ Map, and so she did as the twins started their job… which she soon discovered was to wrap every inch of the office with the plastic roll. It was so simple, yet fun, that she could not help but laugh once the work was done. They had even wrapped it around the chains in the ceiling.

“Are you done now?” She asked with curiosity, eyeing the Dungbombs that were still discarded on the floor.

“Not yet, just watch.” Fred said, as both of them took out their wands and started muttering a spell.

Nothing happened but judging by how they were breaking into fits of laughter, Harriet guessed it would have some hidden magic.

“Basically, we enchanted it so that, when Filch touches any of it, these bombs will go off, one at a time. Now we just have to hide them somewhere.” George explained, making her laugh at the thought.

Deep down, Harriet knew that bothering the caretaker, who was just doing his job, was wrong, but everyone had told her countless times that Filch was nasty towards the students and sometimes deserved it, so she just pushed those thoughts away and focused on having fun with the twins.

Once everything was perfectly set up and the Dungbombs hidden with invisibility spells, they walked out of the office and closed the door, careful not to touch anything. They all wore mischievous grins, and Harriet could not help but giggle from time to time, the adrenaline of it all fuelling her laughter.

“Okay, now we have to make him come here,” Fred mumbled, “what do we do?”

“Some noise?” Harriet suggested.

They started hollering in the middle of the hallway, making enough noise so that the dot that belonged to Filch turned around and started running towards where they were, giving them just enough time to hide in a nearby secret alcove behind a suit of armour, from where they had excellent visual over the office door.

Harriet was squashed between the two brothers, crouching with her head on George’s chest and Fred’s knees digging on her back, but she did not care, too preoccupied trying to stifle her laughter.

“He’s here,” George whispered, shushing them.

On cue, Filch appeared onto their field of vision, puffing and panting as he held a lamp and looked suspiciously around him. They expectantly waited for him to enter his office, Harriet even holding her breath, as he walked closer to the door.

“What’s going on here? I heard screaming.” A drawling voice appeared them, one that Harriet did not recognize but, judging by how the twins had suddenly gone very tense, could not mean anything good.

“Me too!” The caretaker replied angrily, waving the lamp around, “I’m trying to catch those little devils.”

“They could be hidden… somewhere…” The stranger said and, as he gave a step further, Harriet could finally see who it was.

Severus Snape, the man who practically terrorized the entire school according to her friends, was standing there in all his glory. Even she, who had never had a lesson with the man, could not help but feel afraid too, partly because of the rumours, partly because of the dangerous aura that emanated from that man.

Fred and George exchanged worried glances, likely considering if it was worth it trying to run away, but the following actions of Snape changed their plans in a second.

“Have you checked your office, Mr Filch?” He suggested, clearly believing that whoever was causing trouble had been caught inside the office.

The three of them grew stiff and held their breath as the Potions teacher extended his hand, hovering over the plastic-covered handle of the door. Harriet watched with wide eyes as he gripped it. For a second, nothing happened, but then the carefully placed bombs on either side of the door exploded, startling the professor and the caretaker as an awful smell started spreading around the area.

Unable to hold their laughter much longer, Fred was the first to crack, letting out a low giggle while Filch and Snape stood bewildered, the latter with his wand raised and ready to attack whoever it was. The two adults opened the door and stepped inside, more explosions coming from there, and so the three of them took that as their cue to leave.

“We have to run for it.” Whispered Fred. “Three, two, one… go!”

As more explosions came from inside the office, the three laughing teens stepped out from their hiding place and started running away down the hallway, not caring that their footsteps echoed loudly.

“Stop right now!” Snape yelled behind them, him and Filch starting the prosecution.

“Shit,” George uttered, as they went through the dark halls, “let’s just hide again.”

He quickly grabbed Harriet’s wrist and pushed her with him inside a secret door behind a tapestry, while Fred kept running and hid on the other end of the hallway. The space was limited, so they had to squeeze together in order to fit in.

Heavy footsteps went and passed by, the sudden stinking smell telling them exactly who it was. Harriet pressed more against George in fear, realizing then just how close they were. She could feel his rapid heartbeat on his chest, where her head was leaning into, and when she looked up, his eyes found hers in the darkness.

George brought a finger to his lips, signalling her to stay quiet as he wrapped one arm around her side, keeping her in place.

Several minutes passed and soon the threat was gone. Fred had taken the map at the last minute, so there was no true way of knowing, but the lack of noise told them that Filch and Snape had decided to go looking for them somewhere else, thankfully.

“Give it a minute and we go out.” George muttered, his breath warm against Harriet’s ear. She could feel a tingling feeling going down her spine but ignored it in favour of nodding in agreement.

They stood still, pressed against each other for a minute that felt like eternity, and then finally stepped out of the tapestry, finding Fred standing at the other end of the hallway waiting for them.

“About time,” he whispered, hurrying them up as they started walking towards the Gryffindor Tower.

“I think we can call this a success.” George stated with a huge grin that his brother reciprocated, high fiving each other.

“And we got an amazing new companion,” Fred looked at Harriet, high fiving her as well, “well done.”

Between peals of laughter and hurried whispers, the three seventh years finally reached the common room, disturbing a rather annoyed Fat Lady as they stepped in and sprawled on the most comfortable couches.

Harriet looked at a nearby clock that signalled it was around four in the morning and felt exhaustion creeping up on her as she put her head back and stared at the ceiling.

“I had so much fun,” she said, her voice soft, “thank you.”

Fred and George smiled at her, their faces softer too.

“Hey Fred, George,” Harriet suddenly said, sitting up straight and remembering the question that had been going around her head the whole day. Her voice trembled a little, but she still asked it, “are you still mad because of the Adrian thing?”

The twins kept silent for a second, something that did not usually happen, but finally Fred spoke, inching closer to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders as George did the same from the other side.

“It’s silly, and we’re sorry about it.” He said, reassuring her.

“You are free to have any friends you like,” said George, stating the obvious, “and it’s none of our business.”

“Unless they’re Death Eaters, of course.”

Harriet smiled and leant back into their touch, her head resting on George’s forearm. She felt warmer than she had ever been.

“Alright.” She whispered.

***

Harriet received her parents’ letter on Sunday, on the beak of her mother’s owl as she sat among her friends at the Gryffindor table. She petted the animal fondly, giving it something to eat while taking the folded envelope and smiling at the familiar calligraphy of her mother.

_Dear Harriet,_

_Your father and I are happy to hear such good things about Hogwarts. It has only been a week, but we miss you dearly, and wish to see you soon. Christmas cannot come soon enough. Things here are normal, your grandmother is fine, even though you did not ask, but we have decided to stay here for at least a year or two just to be close in case she needs anything._

_Those friends of yours sound nice, we hope you keep making great friendships and feel comfortable there. We are just one letter away from you, so please write to us if you do not feel okay. If you feel okay, write to us anyway. We like hearing from you._

_A kiss from mom and a hug from dad, we love you._

_Love,_

_Mum and dad._

She frowned slightly at the remark over her grandmother, remembering that she had forgotten to ask about her. But then again, Harriet had never had any real relationship with the old woman, having only seen her twice in her life and never really liking her severe character. For her, the woman falling ill was just the motive for the move to England, instead of the source of worry for her parents.

It may be a little insensitive, but how could you worry about a complete stranger?

“Everything alright?” Lee asked suddenly, looking over her shoulder at the letter.

Harriet smiled slightly at him, folding the parchment and pocketing it while she went back to eating her breakfast.

“Yeah, just my parents writing from home.”

“Cool then,” Lee flashed her a smile and then went back to the group, catching the attention of the twins and the girls, “anyways, do we have any plans for today?”

Fred started listing off wild plans that, of course, did not involve studying or homework at all, while George adopted a thoughtful expression and interjected with ideas of his own here and there. Harriet listened to them, remembering their little adventure from the past night and smiling.

However, they were cut off by a dark-haired teen that sat suddenly among them in the table with a serious look on his eyes.

“Harry! What’s up?” Fred greeted him happily, but the fifteen-year-old did not look very happy to see them.

“You were putting Dungbombs in Filch’s office last night, weren’t you?” He asked bluntly, alternating between looking at Fred and George. The twins arched their eyebrows, still smiling at him.

“Yeah, why?” Said George.

Harry heaved a tired sigh. “He accused me yesterday of ordering Dungbombs… now he thinks it was me.”

“Did you order them?” Fred questioned with amusement.

“Of course not!”

“Well then it’s solved.”

Harry looked frustrated at their antics, so Harriet stepped in to clear the situation.

“Guys, we can’t let Harry take the blame for us.” She said, as her friends snapped to look at her in surprise.

“I can’t afford more detention.” The fifth year mumbled, making her feel a pang of sympathy for him.

“Alright, alright, we’ll take the blame.” George finally said, although both twins seemed displeased. Harriet felt her stomach churn – she would have her first detention at Hogwarts and wondered how it would be.

After breakfast, Lee and the girls decided to go for a walk around the lake, while the twins and Harriet walked up towards the Gryffindor common room, thinking about how to turn themselves in. Their spirits were a bit gloomy, but they knew they had to do it for Harry’s sake. He already had enough with Umbridge on his tail.

“We could just walk up to his office and tell him ourselves…” Harriet suggested after being silent for a while.

Both redheads stopped abruptly and looked at her in surprise.

“ _We_? You’re not coming with us, Harriet.” Said Fred.

“What? Why not?! I was part of the prank as much as you were.” She retaliated.

“It was your first prank and we pushed you to come with us. You’re staying out of it, period.” George stated, crossing his arms. Harriet scowled at him.

She knew they were trying to protect her, in their own way, and appreciated the sentiment, but it was not fair that she was fine and dandy without consequences to her actions while they were punished with detention.

“Come on, guys. I must take responsibility too.” She fought weakly, knowing it was a losing battle. The two boys had similar stances, both unwavering.

“Just accept it, Harriet.”

“… Alright. But I’ll do your homework meanwhile.”

Both twins smirked wickedly, happy with the results.

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the end was a bit abrupt now that I'm re-reading it, but honestly I'll just leave it like that.  
> Thanks everyone who gave kudos and read this! I'm happy you guys enjoyed it, and I'll try to update once a week on Thursdays. Following schedules is a bit difficult for me, but I will try my best :)  
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! See you next chapter :)


	7. Hogsmeade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to Hogsmeade gets Harriet more than she bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some (very few) parts of this chapter that are brought from Order of the Phoenix, mostly dialogue. You know this already, but just in case: Harry Potter does not belong to me, only Harriet and everything around her does.  
> Enjoy the reading!

September went by in a flurry of homework, crazy pranks and laughter with the twins, Lee and her two new girl best friends. Harriet also grew closer to Adrian, meeting with him once a week to study together and share Ancient Runes notes. She was happy with her life at Hogwarts, to which she soon grew used to, and there were few things that could bring down the mood.

One of those things, the most prominent one, was Professor Dolores Umbridge.

The pink-clad woman had proven to be more than a pain in the arse, appointing herself as High Inquisitor one week into the semester and quickly starting changes in Hogwarts with her absurd rules. She had also started to inspect lessons, which annoyed Harriet and everyone else to no end, asking questions and trying to find flaws in the teachers.

However, there was a silver lining to this: the first weekend trip to Hogsmeade. The twins had mentioned the wizarding village a couple times before, every time with excitement in their voices, and Angelina and Alicia told her that they absolutely had to go to the shops together. Harriet was happy to hear all about Hogsmeade, since she had never been at an entirely wizarding village.

“You know, people usually go to Hogsmeade on dates.” Alicia casually commented one day, as the three of them were at the common room doing an essay for Professor McGonagall.

“Really?” Harriet looked up from her parchment. She wondered if any of her friends had a date planned.

“Yeah, I think I’ll ask Fred sometime this year…” Angelina mused, tapping the table with her finger. “If he’s still up for whatever he wanted.” She laughed.

Alicia looked at her briefly and then turned to look at Harriet.

“Hasn’t Adrian asked you to go?”

“What?” Harriet looked at her in surprise, dropping her quill completely. “Of course not. He doesn’t have a crush on me, alright?”

During the past weeks, Alicia had been absolutely convinced that Adrian had a crush on Harriet and, to make things worse, had been talking about it with Lee, who had taken to constantly tease her about it too. She only wished that Fred and George didn’t find out… they would annoy her to no end.

“But you two would be so cute! I’ve seen you at the Library, he fits you.” The Chaser insisted, earning a flick on the ear from Angelina.

“Shut up about it, will you? I’m trying to work here.”

Alicia reluctantly dropped the subject and went back to work, but Harriet just looked at her half-written essay pensively. What if Adrian _did_ have a crush on her? She did not want to go through the hassle of rejecting him, but it would have to be done if he confessed or something. Being a teenager was so complicated, Harriet was already starting to hate all the talking about crushes, relationships and _feelings_.

On the morning of the trip to the village, Harriet, Angelina and Alicia didn’t wait for anyone and started early, deciding to do some shopping before their other appointments. Apparently, Hermione Granger had been recruiting people for a special meeting in Hogsmeade, and it had something to do with learning Defence Against the Dark Arts, so Harriet had signed up for it immediately, as well as all her friends.

“Bugger, I forgot my scarf.” Harriet realized once they went into the village and a gust of wind blew their hair back. She was already feeling cold, but that did not stop her from admiring how cute the little village looked.

“We’ll go to the shops and you won’t need it, don’t worry.” Angelina reassured her.

The three girls linked their arms and started walking down to the row of shops. They visited one with robes that Harriet rather liked but were too pricey for her, one with Quidditch supplies in which she got a bit bored, and finally one with utilities for school, in which she bought extra parchment, quills and a nice blue ink.

They were about to go into the bookstore when Alicia realized what time it was, so they had to change their course and head to the run-down pub at the end of the street.

“Are you sure it’s here? It doesn’t look particularly… cosy.” Harriet questioned as they walked among several students that were directed to the same place.

“It’s what Hermione said,” Angelina shrugged, then waving to a girl walking next to them, “hey, Katie!”

Katie Bell, the third Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, turned to them with a bright smile, and Harriet felt Alicia freeze a little next to her, but it was all so fast she did not really register it.

“Hello! Going to Hermione’s meeting too?” The blonde girl asked, her voice soft and friendly.

Angelina nodded. “Yeah, let’s see what all this is about. Oh, by the way, this is Harriet, I don’t think you’ve met.”

Harriet smiled at Katie, finding her pleasant to talk to. She joined them in the walk and soon the four girls were entering the pub, where there were already a few people standing in.

Everything went fast as even more people entered the pub, with Fred, George and Lee at the end of the group asking for Butterbeers. Harriet waved at them with a smile, noticing they were carrying bags from the Joke Shop.

The noisy group soon settled onto chairs surrounding the trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione, all waiting for whatever they had to say. Harriet was excited and curious at the same time; she had never been in a “club” like that and was eager to hear what Harry had to say.

“Er… well, hi.” Hermione Granger started talking and everyone looked at her. “Well… you know why you’re here. I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts took matters into our own hands.”

She talked a bit more about Umbridge and her rubbish methods, gaining the approval of the crowd quickly. Harriet listened attentively when everyone started reciting the incredible stories about Harry Potter, not knowing whether to believe it or not.

“A Basilisk? Dementors? _Acromantula_? What kind of school is this?” She whispered to Angelina, baffled, but the girl just laughed at her.

“Honestly after a while you get used to it,” Angelina said simply, “Potter here loves to engage in adventures.”

Finally, after a few moments of idle banter and telling off a rather aggressive Ravenclaw called Zacharias Smith, everyone settled on organizing meetings once a week, and that they would pass around the information as soon as they decided on a place and time. Harriet was not sure if she should sign or not the parchment – after all, signing your name around was never a good idea – but after seeing George’s encouraging look, she took the quill and did it anyways.

“I feel like I signed a contract.” She told her friends while they stepped out of the pub and into the fresh but cold air.

“Yeah, same.” Said Alicia, who had been uncharacteristically quiet up until that point. “I hope Harry knows what he’s doing.”

“Stop worrying girls, this will be fun!” Lee stepped in their conversation, slinging his arms around Angelina and Harriet, who chuckled.

“I’m so looking forward to learning how to hex you, Jordan.” Said Angelina with a smirk.

They walked with the twins up until the shopping street, where Angelina and Alicia wanted to go to The Three Broomsticks and the twins and Lee preferred visiting the candy shop. Not being in the mood for another Butterbeer, Harriet chose to go with the boys, while Katie hung back with her teammates.

“You’re going to love Honeydukes,” George told her with a confident smile, “if you like sweets, that is.”

“Believe me, I do.” Harriet looked up at him with a smile. Chocolate had always been her guilty pleasure.

They spent the afternoon hanging around Hogsmeade, mucking around and talking about the pranks that the twins planned to pull soon. As they made their way back into the castle, before dinner, the conversation diverted towards the upcoming Quidditch match, and so Harriet found herself hanging back a bit in the group, not too interested in hearing about all the kinds of plays they had prepared.

She shivered, regretting once again not having gotten her scarf. Her throat was starting to ache, and if she kept like that, she would have a cold the next morning, or a sore throat at best.

“Hey,” George’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she looked up to see that he too was hanging behind Fred and Lee, hands on his pockets, “everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just a bit cold.” Harriet told him with flushed cheeks. “Forgot my scarf.”

George did not say anything, instead stopping for a moment and taking off his own Gryffindor scarf. He offered it to her, who looked at it incredulously.

“Take it, I’m not cold anyways.”

“B-But you’ll get cold then…” Harriet tried to refuse but was cut off by the redhead wrapping the soft material around her, leaving no room for arguing.

“Come on, I’m hungry for dinner.” He told her with a small smile.

Walking fast to keep up with his pace, Harriet snuggled into the scarf. It smelt like George, and she liked that.

***

On Monday morning, Hogwarts woke up to a new Educational Decree, of course, courtesy of their High Inquisitor, Professor Umbridge. According to the decree, all organizations, societies, teams, groups, and clubs were officially disbanded, and Harriet’s thoughts immediately went towards the meeting held the past Saturday. Umbridge, somehow, knew about it.

However, her thoughts quickly drifted elsewhere as she turned and saw Angelina’s look of rage and fear, both at the same time creating a weird mixture of emotions in her face.

“The Quidditch team!” She exclaimed, her voice wavering. “No… she can’t…”

“I’m going to kill her.” Said Alicia darkly.

Harriet put a comforting hand on either of their shoulders, thinking of something, anything she could say, but before that happened, Angelina staked off and out the common room.

“I’m sure Quidditch teams will be re-formed easily.” She mumbled under her breath, but Alicia did not seem to be listening either.

“I’ve got to inform Katie,” she said, and ran off towards the fourth-year girls’ dormitory.

That left Harriet all by herself. Shrugging in resignation, she went downstairs to have breakfast, feeling worried and anxious about the whole ordeal. The biggest incognita was how could Umbridge have found out about it. Maybe she had been at the pub? Harriet did not recall seeing anyone even remotely similar to the toad-like teacher, but who knows.

She joined Lee and the twins on breakfast, listening to them talking about Quidditch _once again_ while absent-mindedly picking at his eggs when realization dawned on her.

“Merlin,” she mumbled under her breath, before turning to the nearest redhead, “George, I still have your scarf.”

All three boys stopped their conversation at once, looking between George and Harriet with strange looks on their faces. George looked a bit embarrassed, the tips of his ears turning red, and he avoided looking at her in the eye when he spoke:

“You can just… give it to me later. No big deal.”

Harriet nodded in agreement and continued eating, ignoring the looks Lee and Fred were sending her way. Apparently, lending an object of clothing now meant that she and George were going to get married, judging by their reactions.

Whatever, she had better things to think about, Harriet told herself, like for example making sure that the Defence group was still ongoing.

“You’ve seen Umbridge’s notice, right?” She leant forward, so that they could hear her but there were not any other ears nearby.

“Yeah, of course,” Lee looked annoyed, and so did the twins, “that old hag. She must have been spying on us!”

“Shh, lower your voice.” George shushed him. “Harry said we’re going to do it anyway.”

“Even the prefects,” added Fred with a smirk.

“Ooh, illegal. I like it.” Harriet joked and smiled, glad to see that it was as important to her friends as it was to her. “And Quidditch?”

Lee shrugged, while the twins looked concerned and angry at the same time.

“Angelina was going to ask permission later…” Fred started.

“…but seeing how much Umbridge likes Harry, we won’t be training for a while.” Continued George.

Harriet sighed with displeasure.

“I really hope everything gets sorted out soon.”

It was not until Wednesday that the Gryffindor seventh years had class with Professor Umbridge, and Harriet almost could not help but glare at the horrendous woman the whole time. She was the kind to wear her emotions on her sleeve, so having to conceal them for the sake of politeness was proving to be really hard.

It didn’t help that they were reading an incredibly boring chapter about the Unforgivable Curses, something she had already covered in the past year in Germany and that she didn’t need to read again to know those curses were, well, unforgivable.

“Psst!”

Checking that Umbridge was looking somewhere else, Harriet quickly turned around, staring at the freckled face of George Weasley.

“What do you want?” She hastily mumbled. He handed her a folded note, to which she rolled her eyes and turned back around.

Umbridge then walked by their row and she quickly hid the piece of parchment, trying her best to look focused on her book. Once the hideous pink outfit was out of her sight, Harriet unfolded the note, smiling unconsciously when she saw the familiar handwriting.

_I really wouldn’t mind an Avada Kedavra right now_

Stealthily, she scribbled something down in her rounder handwriting and tossed it back again, chuckling to herself when she saw George struggling to pick it out of the corner of her eye.

**_If only Umbridge taught us how to do it, I would help you with it_ **

“Very funny.” She heard him whisper jokingly, and right after the note appeared on her desk again, having been thrown with expertise.

On the other side of the room, Professor Umbridge cleared her throat, so Harriet pretended to read again. She waited five minutes before unfolding the note, and still checked that the teacher was not looking in her direction during the entire process.

_Friends are for murder! But honestly, this lesson can’t finish soon enough, ugh_

He had even drawn a little sad face after his words, which made Harriet smile again. Sadly, this did not go unnoticed by Umbridge, who appeared right next to her desk in a matter of seconds.

“Do you find the _Cruciatus_ curse funny, Miss Kohl?” Asked the woman, her voice dangerously sweet and high-pitched.

Harriet gulped. She was in trouble.

“No.”

Maybe if she kept her answers short and simple, Umbridge would leave her alone.

“Must be the note-passing, then.”

The professor’s look danced from Harriet to George, and she felt her heart sinking. It was her fault they had been caught; she could not let George take the blame too.

“It was my idea, Professor.” She said, rather boldly. By that point, the whole class was staring at her, and Harriet could see Angelina mouthing something behind Umbridge’s back.

“Detention. My office at five o’clock.” Umbridge said with a sardonic smile that only made her look worse. “I won’t tolerate passing notes in my class.”

The lesson went on and Harriet stared at her book, noticing that her friends looked at her from time to time but not reciprocating their glances. George’s note felt like it was burning in her pocket and, lame as it may sound, she felt like she was about to cry.

Okay, that last part might be because her period was coming up soon. But still.

She tried to psych herself up, thinking that detention would not be that bad, even if it was her first one at Hogwarts. What was the worst that could happen, Umbridge making her write some lines? It would be boring as all hell, but that was all.

“You didn’t have to cover for me.” George hissed as soon as they left the classroom, appearing at her side as she tried to leave the place as fast as she could.

Harriet did not stop walking, feeling a mountain of emotions welling up inside her.

“I wasn’t going to land you on detention for something _I_ did.” She snapped at him.

“It was my fault and you know it!” He retorted, louder this time. Harriet felt tears brimming on her eyes; she hated it when people yelled at her.

“Leave me alone, George.”

Instead, he grabbed her shoulder, making her stop on her tracks. Harriet looked at the floor pointedly, wishing just to be left alone so she could go to the nearest toilet and be a cry-baby.

“Listen, Harriet –” he tried, but was interrupted by her shrugging off his hand and stalking away.

At that moment, Harriet felt very, very stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably one of the longer chapters, but I rather like how it turned out. I hope you enjoy it too! Some characters are a bit difficult to write, but I hope I nailed everything.  
> Thank you everyone for reading, see you next Thursday! :)


	8. Detention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detention with Umbridge is awful, but thankfully, Harriet has the best friends in the world.

At exactly five o’clock on Monday afternoon, Harriet stood outside Professor Umbridge’s office, hand raised and ready to knock. The hallway looked darker than usual in that part of the building, and the young witch felt inclined to think that it was because of her own gloominess.

After all, she had only heard bad things about Umbridge’s detentions.

“Come in.” She heard the woman’s voice behind the door.

Harriet entered the office cautiously, trying hard not to visibly cringe too hard when she saw the distasteful decoration – it was all pink, lacy cloths and eerie cats looking at her from the wall. Umbridge was waiting for her sitting behind her desk, and gestured to another smaller desk at one side of the room.

“Good evening, Miss Kohl. Please take a seat.”

Stiffly, Harriet sat on the chair that belonged to the desk, setting her bag aside and, upon seeing the blank parchment waiting for her, rummaging inside it for her quill.

“Oh, no, no, Miss Kohl, you must use this quill.” Said Umbridge, in that sugary voice Harriet hated so much. She was handing her a long quill, black and sharp, and the student took it after a moment of hesitation.

“What about the ink?” She asked, raising one eyebrow.

Umbridge smiled, something Harriet did not like one bit.

“It won’t be necessary. Now, write _I must not pass notes in class_ as many times as necessary.”

Harriet let the quill hover over the parchment for a moment, feeling that there was something horribly wrong going on. She knew Umbridge was watching her and decided that it was best to get it done with as soon as she could.

The quill scraped against the parchment, forming the sentence she had been told to write. And then, Harriet felt a searing pain on her right hand. In horror, she noticed how the same sentence, in her own handwriting, had appeared there like thin cuts, while the parchment sported a shining red ink. Her hand started healing immediately, though, but the pain was still there.

Gritting her teeth and wondering if that sort of punishment was truly okay at Hogwarts, Harriet wrote the sentence once more, and then another time, as her hand throbbed in pain.

She looked once at the professor, who seemed concentrated on her own papers, and then out of the window, where she could see the Quidditch pitch. There was not anybody there, but the grass glistened under the setting sun and, somehow, it gave her a sliver of hope and enough motivation to go on.

A couple hours passed by until the parchment was full of sentences, back and forth. Harriet let the quill rest, looking up at Umbridge knowing that that meant her punishment was basically over. Her hand hurt like hell, and she knew that the words would stay there for a long time, since she had always had fragile skin. Just peachy.

“I hope the message is now quite clear, Miss Kohl.” Said Umbridge, again with that eerie smile. “See you tomorrow in class.”

Harriet stood up and left, making an effort not to hex the foul woman right there and there. She felt her hand bleeding, so right after closing the office door, the young witch broke into a run towards the nearest toilet, intent on washing the injury.

The darkness that reigned on the hallway told her that she had probably already missed dinner, but it was not after curfew yet, so she decided to go back towards the common room and try not to make a big deal out of the situation. Specially not in front of the twins, George would only get angrier if he saw what had happened because she covered for him.

“There you are.”

Her plans went out of the window as soon as she left the toilet, seeing the recognizable frame of George Weasley leaning on the opposite wall. Trying to salvage what little dignity she had left, Harriet looked at the ground and held back the tears while hiding her bleeding hand behind her back.

“Harriet?” He approached her, looking worried. “Did Umbridge give you much trouble?”

Harriet shook her head, but the first tear had already fallen, she could feel it running across her cheek.

George wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the open hallway and into one of the many hidden alcoves he knew. There, he casted _Lumos_ with his wand, and once he saw her tear-stricken face, his eyes portrayed a silent kind of rage.

“What did she do to you?” He insisted, both sitting on the stony floor.

“N-Nothing.”

She felt like an idiot for crying, especially in front of George, and winced as her hand throbbed again, holding it on instinct. This action did not go unnoticed by the redhead, who was quick to extend his hand and softly grab hers. His fingers traced the words lightly, careful not to hurt her.

“She made me write lines.” Said Harriet thickly. “It cut my skin.”

“That bitch…” George’s voice was filled with hatred, and Harriet felt his grasp becoming a little bit tighter.

“Ow.”

George released her hand and started rummaging through his pockets, pulling out a packet of tissues. He handed one to Harriet so that she could wipe her tears, which she gladly accepted, and then took another one.

“Give me your hand.” He instructed.

Harriet did so and felt his cautious fingers starting to envelop it in the tissue, the blood quickly staining it as he wrapped it tightly around her hand, doing then the same with another tissue to reinforce the makeshift bandage.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say that, Harriet.” George lifted lightly her head so that they could look at each other in the eye. “I am the one who’s sorry… it’s my fault we’re even in this situation.”

Neither of them said anything for a couple of minutes, Harriet noticing he had not let go of her hand but not wanting him to release it either. His touch felt warm and safe, and it was what she needed at that moment. In the semi-darkness, she locked eyes with him, seeing the guilt, fury and helplessness dancing behind his irises.

“It’ll get better.” She whispered, reassuring him. “We just have to behave a little.”

“You know that with me, that’s impossible.” George joked, and both of them laughed a little, releasing the pent-up tension. “I think Fred knows some healing spells; we can ask him –”

“No.” Harriet cut him off sharply. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“…okay.”

They stood like that for a while, Harriet eventually changing sides so that she was sitting next to him and leaning her head on his shoulder. The tears had stopped falling and her hand did not throb as much as before, but she did not want to see anyone else yet. Being there, with George, was relaxing enough, and Harriet only wished they could hide away for hours on end.

“Curfew will be soon,” she whispered after a while, “we should go.”

“Who cares about curfew.” Said George, making her chuckle lightly.

“I don’t want to have any more detention.” Harriet replied softly.

The walk back to the common room was silent. There were no words needed, and Harriet was grateful for George distracting the rest of their little group when they arrived so that she could go to sleep unnoticed.

That night, as the tears stained her pillow once more, Harriet thought back to George and his comforting touch, and sleepily wished he were there with her at that moment. Right before falling asleep, she wondered how it would feel to sleep with him.

***

“I heard what happened with Umbridge,” was the first thing Adrian said on Thursday afternoon, when Harriet occupied her seat at her Ancient Runes class, “you need to be more careful.”

Harriet glanced at him, trying to appear nonchalant while hiding all the anger and sadness the memories of the punishment brought her. She did not want to make Adrian worry too; one person was more than enough.

“It was just detention Adrian, no big deal,” she tried to downplay it, not meeting his eyes and instead focusing on the book that laid before her. Couldn’t Professor Babbling appear already?

“Listen,” Adrian leaned a bit closer and lowered his voice, which was tinged with worry and barely-restrained displeasure, “I’ve been told that Umbridge’s detention is everything but normal. I do not know what that woman did to you, but I’m sure it was something bad. Be careful, Umbridge’s got quite the reputation at the Ministry.”

There was a tense silence as Harriet did not know what to reply to that. Adrian’s mother worked at the Ministry, so it made sense he was, at best, wary of Umbridge, but she did not like being told to be careful. She _shouldn’t_ have to be careful, they were at school, for Merlin’s sake!

Thankfully, Professor Babbling entered the room at that precise moment, apologizing for being late, so Harriet took the chance to interrupt the conversation and not be rude about it. If she was more focused in class than other days to avoid talking to Adrian, well, that was her problem.

“Today we will be reviewing common translations for NEWTs exams,” started the teacher, clapping her hands and picking some chalk to write on the blackboard, “please copy the following sentences…”

Harriet started to write as she usually did, failing to remember the wound on her right hand, which made her wince horribly in pain. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by her desk mate, who looked at her through his blonde mop of hair with a hard to identify expression. She ignored him and continued writing, gritting her teeth to bear the pain on her hand.

A small piece of parchment appeared then on top of her book. There, in neat handwriting, was a short message:

_Murtlap essence. Good for cuts and wounds._

It was Adrian’s writing, but Harriet did not say anything about it, only pocketing the small note and staring at the front. She had gotten into enough trouble already for passing notes.

Once the class ended, she hastily gathered her things and tried to leave the room quickly, heading for the Library so she could find more information about that ‘Murtlap essence’. However, Adrian was by her side as soon as she crossed the threshold, and Harriet got the feeling that she would not be able to shake him off.

“ _That’s_ what I was talking about when I said, ‘be careful’!” Said the Slytherin prefect, looking pointedly at her right hand. “You have to heal it before it gets infected or something.”

Harriet shrugged, her grip on her messenger bag tightening a little.

“It can’t be healed.” She simply said.

“Are you going to the Library?” Asked Adrian, keeping up with her fast pace.

“Yes.”

“To look for the Murtlap essence.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll go with you.”

The Gryffindor witch stopped on her tracks, almost fuming.

“Don’t you have anything better to do? Class, Prefect duties, something like that?” Her tone was a bit harsh, but she did not care for it, hoping that Adrian would stop coddling her.

“No. I’m walking my friend to the Library. Where’s the harm in that?” He said with an innocent smile, knowing he was annoying her. The worry was still present in his dark irises, but Harriet decided to give in. Maybe a friend’s company is what she needed, instead of wallowing in her own sadness.

“Why are you in Slytherin, anyways?” Harriet asked as she walked through the rows of shelves absent-mindedly. Adrian looked a bit taken aback at the sudden question, but answered it nonetheless.

“Let’s see… pureblood family, ambitious and a bit of a perfectionist,” he listed, smiling lightly, “the Sorting Hat actually thought to put me on Ravenclaw, but I’ve got too big of a self-preservation sense for that. So, Slytherin.”

Harriet hummed while processing the new information. She already knew how ambitious Adrian was – he wanted to be a Healer at all costs, and nothing would deter him from achieving it – and the perfectionism was obvious in how he liked his essays to be the very best. It saddened her, though, that most people saw Slytherin for their bad qualities, and not for who they were.

Exhibit A: all the Gryffindors on her year.

“You aren’t still mulling over the house rivalry things, are you?” Adrian inquired. She shook her head.

“Nah, just… thinking.”

They left the Library with a book on what they needed and decided to settle on an open classroom to prepare the essence before dinner. As they walked down the hallways, they heard all sorts of scuffles and yells coming from the students that had just finished their lessons for the day. Harriet paid them no attention, focused on listening to Adrian talk about his latest Potions class, where Snape had been strangely tame with them, but a loud yell suddenly attracted her attention.

Right at the end of the corridor stood five people, three wearing Slytherin robes facing two girls from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Harriet knew that red hair fairly well, even if she hadn’t ever talked to the girl in question, it was not difficult to guess.

“Take that back now!” The red-haired girl was saying, a fierceness in her voice that left no room for mistake. It was Ginny Weasley, of course. “Or I’ll hex you!”

The Slytherins laughed, all looking rather unpleasant people to say the least. Harriet did not recognize anyone, but judging by the scowl on Adrian’s face, he did.

“You have to break them up,” Harriet mumbled at her friend, who looked like he was weighing his options.

“Do I really have to?” He looked at her tiredly, obviously not wanting to intervene in such a scuffle. Harriet frowned. “…alright. Call it friendship privileges.”

Harriet smiled with satisfaction as he stepped up between the students, who all except the Ravenclaw girl had drawn out their wands.

“Hexing in hallways is forbidden,” Adrian said with a tired voice, clearly wanting to get it over with, “go back to wherever you need to be, come on.”

The three Slytherin boys looked like they wanted to argue, but upon seeing his prefect badge just walked away, mumbling between them. Adrian turned to look at Harriet with a look that said “happy?”, to which she smiled.

“He deserved being hexed out of existence,” said suddenly the young Weasley, her eyes still ablaze with anger.

Harriet approached her and glanced for a moment towards the Ravenclaw girl, who had a dreamy look on her face and looked like she did not belong there at all, like she was in a whole different astral plane.

“What happened?” She asked the two girls.

“They were picking on Luna again,” Ginny explained while crossing her arms and looking pointedly at Adrian, “you should’ve taken points.”

“Yeah, of course, from my own house.” Mumbled the Slytherin, rolling his eyes. Harriet got the feeling that no one would be very happy if the conversation continued, so she decided to put an end to it.

“Well we’re just going,” she said hurriedly, “please stay out of trouble and such.”

They started walking away, but not before Ginny called out:

“Says the one who hangs out with my brothers!”

Harriet looked back at her with a smirk, shrugging, and happy to see her smiling back too.

Weasleys, they were going to be the death of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Harriet is the type of person who hates being coddled, but I had to write the George fluff or else I would explode.  
> I hoped you liked this chapter, I tried to give a little more introspection to some characters and I really like where this is going. There will still be slow burn for a few chapters but don't worry, it certainly won't get boring!  
> Thank you everyone for your kudos, comments, readings, etc., I truly appreciate them. As always, feel free to point out any mistakes you notice and see you next Thursday!


	9. Dumbledore's Army

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rebellious teens do rebellious things, and more than one person gets stunned.

It was not until the next week that Harriet heard again about the Defence Against the Dark Arts group led by Harry Potter. Hermione had approached her and the twins that same day after Transfiguration, hurriedly telling them about the time and place they needed to meet that same evening. The three of them were excited to hear about it, and Harriet could hardly wait to start learning new defensive spells.

“We didn’t get many Defence classes back in Germany,” she explained the twins as they walked back from dinner to the common room, “the school thought they wouldn’t be too necessary, so we instead learnt more domestic and useful spells, things that could help us work in the future.”

“That sucks, where’s the fun in that?” Said Fred. Harriet shrugged.

“Defence here is kind of a joke, actually,” said George with a reminiscent look on his face, “last year we had an impostor casting Unforgivable Curses on us…”

“… and never forget the year Lockhart spent talking about only himself…”

“…yeah, and Quirrell, remember?”

“You-Know-Who in the back of his head.”

“Wicked.”

Harriet looked between the two of them in surprise.

“Why would Dumbledore hire those people? Honestly, Hogwarts just gets weirder by the minute.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.” The twins chorused, each slinging an arm around her shoulders.

The common room was a bit crowded at that time of the day, but Harriet did not mind the noise while she worked. She parted ways with the twins, who looked forward to sell some of their products – Harriet only hoped they didn’t start puking again, it was disgusting – and wandered towards Angelina, who was busy writing down Quidditch practices and muttering to herself.

“Hey, you coming to the meeting later?” Harriet asked her, plopping down on the armchair next to her and taking off her messenger bag.

Angelina replied with a nod, not taking her eyes off the parchment.

Harriet hummed and pulled out a book she had to read for Herbology. Plants had not been too interesting for her, but between that and Potions, she would choose the flora any time. To say the truth, Harriet had not thought too much about her future job when she picked up the subjects to study for NEWTs, hoping she would get a clear idea on the way.

So far, it was not working.

_While young Bouncing Bulbs can be small enough to handle by a wizard, mature ones can even reach the size of doorways…_

People cheered around her, and Harriet looked up from the book once, her eyes finding the twins in the middle of a crowd. They were, once again, showing off their products, this time something called Nosebleed Nougat. She winced slightly as George started bleeding profusely from his nose and averted her gaze. Better get concentrated on the reading.

_… the bulbs can get aggressive when threatened, thus the ideal spell if attacked would be a simple Knockback Jinx…_

“Oh, I hate the rain so much.” Alicia threw herself in the nearest chair, sighing sadly as she looked out of the window. “It just makes me feel so melancholic, you know?”

Harriet closed the book, realizing quickly that she would not get any reading done. It was nearing the time they had to leave the common room anyways, so she did not mind that much. She turned to Alicia with a sympathetic smile, resting an elbow over the armrest and her head on her closed fist.

“Where have you been, anyways? You disappeared after lunch.” She inquired lightly.

Alicia shrugged, mumbling something Harriet did not quite understand, but before she could ask her to talk louder, the twins appeared right behind the armchair she was sitting on.

“Performance’s over girls, we missed your help,” said Fred with a grin, tipping the armchair back as Harriet let out a yelp.

“Oi! Stop!”

The twins laughed but complied, letting the seat rest on four legs again.

“I’m not helping you anytime soon,” said Alicia with a look of disgust on her face, “the smell of vomit is enough from here.”

“Aww come on, we need some pretty girls to attract more audience.” George insisted, and Harriet threw a cushion at him that he could not dodge.

“If you just want us for our looks,” she said, crossing her arms, “don’t hold your breath.”

Both redheads laughed as they took a seat on each armrest. George’s forearm dangled right before Harriet’s face, and she could not help but notice how, when he rolled up his shirt sleeves, defined muscle could be easily seen. Her face grew slightly hot and she looked away, embarrassed with herself.

“So, how much money have you made with your silly tricks?” Inquired Alicia, leaning forward to inspect the leather bag that Fred held. He moved it out of her hands’ way with a smirk, but Harriet could see for a split second the frown that crossed both twins’ faces.

“That, my dear Spinnet, is classified.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun.” She stuck her tongue out at them while Harriet observed the entire exchange. She was caged between the two redheads, and not very sure if she liked the position or not.

“Excuse me?” George put a hand on his chest and looked affronted, “we _are_ fun. You just can’t appreciate it.”

Alicia scoffed and it was then when Angelina looked up from the parchment she had been looking at, a scowl on her sharp features.

“Will you shut up for a second?” She chastised them. “This may be the key for us to win the match.”

Fred and George imitated her soundlessly, making Harriet laugh before she stood from the armchair and checked her wristwatch, right when Lee joined them.

“Guys, we should go now.”

They arrived at the meeting point just in time, finding there all the other students that had been at the meeting the past weekend. Harriet recognized a few faces here and there, apart from the ones that belonged to her own house, and realized that there were Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, but no Slytherins.

A thought crossed her head at that. Should she had told Adrian about the meeting? Maybe he would have been interested. Or maybe not, seeing the risk it entailed since they were doing it kind of “illegally”, according to the last Education Decree.

Harry closed the door then and everyone occupied a seat on the various cushions that were strewn over the place. It was an ample room, filled with strange instruments everyone assumed had something to do with Defence against the Dark Arts.

“This is kind of exciting,” she whispered to Lee, who had sat at her right.

“I just can’t believe we didn’t know about this place.” He whispered back. There was a characteristic look in the boy’s eyes, the one he adopted whenever the twins started having wild ideas or talking about going on an adventure.

In some way, what they were doing _was_ an adventure.

“I think we ought to elect a leader.” Said Hermione loudly, diverting everyone’s attention to her.

“Harry’s leader,” replied a Ravenclaw girl Harriet did not know.

Everyone seemed to agree with it, putting their hands up at the same time Fred whispered: “yay, democracy!”

Then the matter of the name started. Some ridiculous ones were suggested – really, the _Ministry of Magic are Morons Group_? – but in the end they settled for Dumbledore’s Army, or DA for short. Harriet liked it; she liked Dumbledore good enough, and even though she hardly knew anything about wizarding British politics, it was fun and rebellious to be in an anti-government group.

Harry suggested to start with _Expelliarmus_ , the disarming spell, and soon everyone was on their feet and pairing up. Alicia was with Katie, Lee with Angelina and the twins together… which left Harriet alone. Oh, joy.

“Hey, come with us!” Said George at once, gesturing for her. She shrugged and walked towards them, wand at the ready. “We can take turns.”

Indeed, they took turns. While Harriet was busy trying to disarm one of them, the other pointed his wand towards Zacharias Smith, the annoying Ravenclaw, and disarmed him.

“I don’t think that’s the best way to practice.” She said nonchalantly, avoiding George’s spell.

The twins just smirked, but once Harry caught them, they stopped at once with apologetic looks. Harriet, meanwhile, was having trouble disarming them, not having yet quite mastered the spell. She was getting more frustrated by the second, her patience running thin as Fred’s wand was still on his grasp.

“You’re doing the movement wrong,” said George, moving so that he stood beside her, “here, let me…”

Without any warning, he firmly put his hand over Harriet’s, directing her in how she should make the movement. She felt her heartbeat quicken at that, his warm hand feeling way too warm over her own.

“T-Thanks.” She finally uttered, letting out a slight breath when he withdrew. “ _Expelliarmus_!”

Finally, Fred’s wand flew out of his hand and the twins cheered, giving her a high-five each.

They practiced for a while, taking Harry’s suggestions as he walked past them, and Harriet felt herself getting the hang of the spell. Soon, she was able to do it quickly and without warning, prompting her to decide that the next thing she should learn was to do it non-verbally.

The “lesson” finished at ten past nine, moment in which Harry ushered everyone out and told them to get back to their common rooms, not wanting to risk them getting caught by Filch. Harriet hung back with the twins and listened to them talk excitedly about the DA, wondering what spells they could perfect for the next time.

In some ways, she admired them. Fred and George were clearly skilled and clever wizards, which had been proved in the way they could disarm Smith non-verbally so stealthily, but instead of using their knowledge for academic credit, they just did what they enjoyed.

“What’cha thinking about?” George suddenly asked, pulling her out of her thoughts. Fred looked at her too, one eyebrow raised.

“Nothing,” Harriet lied hastily, “I’m just happy we get to learn Defence, even if it has to be this way.”

“Well, personally, I think is much better like this –”

“– nothing beats breaking a couple school rules.”

She grinned at them and shook her head.

They soon arrived at the common room, where all their housemates were at already apart from the Golden Trio, as Harriet had dubbed them on her head. Fred quickly strode towards where their friends were sitting, but Harriet tugged on George’s arm slightly so that he stayed back.

“Yeah?” He looked at her expectantly.

Why was she feeling so nervous all of a sudden? Honestly, all the teenage hormones were certainly messing her up.

“I just…” Harriet struggled to find the correct words, not meeting his eyes, “um… thank you. For helping me with _Expelliarmus_.”

George laughed lightly and put a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with a smile so bright that rivalled a thousand suns.

“Anytime, Harry.”

Harriet scrunched up her nose at the nickname.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Why not? I think it’s cool. It also reminds me of someone… hmm… who could it be?”

“Shut up!”

He laughed again and she swatted his forearm, which only made George laugh harder and start running around the room while Harriet chased him. It was a ridiculous scene but, as she ran and laughed in pursuit of the red-headed boy, Harriet realized she would not want it any other way.

***

The DA meetings continued during the next two weeks, over which Harriet tried her best not to get paired up with any of the twins again. That little stunt with George on the first session had been on her mind a lot more that she would like it to be and learning to defend herself was a serious thing that she did _not_ want to ruin.

On their third session, they learned the Stunning spell, a rather useful one that Harriet had been looking forward to mastering. If someone came to attack you, what better than to stun them? No harm done, and one could leave the scene calmly.

“Okay everyone, pair up please!” Called Harry, prompting a flurry of people standing up and finding themselves a pair. Since she was the closest to her, Harriet stood with Angelina, who had a confident smile on her face.

Something that Harriet should had taken into account before pairing up with her: Angelina never, _ever_ , held back on her magic.

“ _Stupefy!_ ” Cried the Quidditch Captain, taking Harriet by surprise and throwing her backwards, away from the cushion.

The last thing she heard before falling unconscious was Angelina profusely apologizing.

Bright orange filled her vision as Harriet came to bleary-eyed. She heard the faint sounds of people duelling around her and closed her eyes again. There was some rustling around her and someone pushing a cushion under her head, which prompted her to peek again.

“Finally, you’re awake.” Said a voice with relief. Judging by the bright orange still flooding her vision, Harriet identified it as belonging to either Fred or George.

“How…” she tried to sit up, a hand on her back refraining her body from collapsing again, “how long have I been out?”

Her eyes finally focused, and Harriet could see Fred and George crouching right before her, so close that she could have counted their freckles if she wanted. Identical grins appeared on their faces at her question.

“The year is 2020 –” one of them started.

“– Ron is Minister of Magic –”

“– and there has been a new plague.”

Someone snorted behind them – Angelina, she realized – and Harriet tried to swat at the twins, wishing to have a little more personal space.

“Ha, ha, very funny.” She said, a smile appearing on her face regardless.

Fred and George finally stepped back, allowing her to see that Angelina, Lee and Alicia were there too, looking at her with a mixture of worry and relief. Her head ached a little, and when she lifted a hand to rub it a little, Harriet noticed there was still an arm supporting her back.

George’s arm to be more exact.

“You hit your head pretty bad, Harry asked us to watch over you a little.” Lee informed her.

“I’m sorry,” said Angelina, biting her lip worriedly. Harriet smiled at her.

“It’s okay, I’m okay.” She said.

Despite her friends’ protests, Harriet stood up, feeling a bit drained but okay nonetheless. She hated seeing their faces so worried over such a small accident.

“Come on Angie, I still have to stun you.” She grinned, wielding her wand with confidence.

By the end of the lesson, Harriet still had not succeeded in stunning Angelina, but at least she knew the basis of the spell. She only hoped they would practice it more.

Somehow, Harriet got the feeling that the Stunning Spell would come in handy sooner than any of them would like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your comments, kudos, etc.! I hope you've liked this chapter and stay safe these days :)


	10. Quidditch, Quidditch and more Quidditch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Quidditch match of the year... what could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone, I hope you had a nice week! Thank you for your kudos, comments and bookmarks, they make me really happy and inspire me to keep going. I hope you like this chapter - it has some parts from the book but I tried to make it as interesting as possible, following Harriet's viewpoint. See you next Thursday :)

November brought not only howling wind and icy rain, but also the first Quidditch match of the season. Everyone in Hogwarts seemed to be very invested on it, even the teachers since it was Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Even Harriet, who had not really held any true interest on the magical sport, asked to see their last training before the important day, curious to see how the team worked.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, why are they looking at us like that?”

Harriet and Lee were walking down the main staircase together, both heading towards the pitch to see their friends. The dark-haired witch nodded towards several Slytherin students that stood nearby as she formulated the question, noticing the nasty glares they were sending them.

Lee smiled slightly.

“It’s been like this for weeks,” he explained, raising his eyebrows at the Slytherins in turn, “mostly towards the players, though. A kind of campaign to instil fear, I guess.”

Glancing back at the Slytherins, who had resumed their own conversations, Harriet furrowed her eyebrows.

“You British people are so weird.”

“Nah, I think it’s just you.” Lee laughed.

They made it to the pitch as the sun started to dip into the horizon, a nice orange and pink light illuminating everything. Harriet loved how everything looked at sunset, the light making everything shine in a different way.

Angelina was already urging the Gryffindor team to start flying, shouting around movements and practices while Lee and Harriet chose a seat on the stands as close to the pitch as they could. She saw the twins passing each other a Bludger as they flew so fast that it was difficult to distinguish them, and the three Chasers taking turns in doing several manoeuvres and trying to score a goal while Ron Weasley defended the hoops.

“He’s getting better,” she heard Lee mutter, invested in the training session as if it was a real game.

“Isn’t that a little dangerous?” Harriet asked with concern as Fred and George started to hit the Bludger around trying to divert the Chasers from their course.

“Nah, we don’t usually have any incidents.” He replied breezily, waving his hand.

“ _Usually_?”

“I mean there was this one time when Potter broke his arm…”

Harriet felt her eyes grow wide in concern, looking at the Seeker, who was currently doing some diving manoeuvre in pursuit of the Snitch.

“Merlin.” She mumbled under her breath.

They continued watching the training session with interest – at least during the first hour, that is. When sixty minutes had passed with nothing amazing happening during them, Harriet turned her attention towards the Herbology book she had brought with her. Since the sun had long set, the atmosphere had grown colder, making her shiver. However, she would not leave the pitch, for her friends’ sake. They deserved to know they had her support.

Bundled in her robes and Gryffindor scarf, Harriet endured yet another hour, until Angelina finally shouted that they were finished, and she sighed happily.

“Well that was interesting,” said Lee while standing up from his seat, “let’s go say hello.”

She followed suit until they reached the changing rooms, where he noticed that Harriet hesitated.

“Come on, I do this all the time.” He insisted, grinning.

“Lee is that you?” Came Alicia’s voice from inside. The door opened, letting a sliver of light into the darkened grass, and Harriet saw her face peeking out. “Hey, Harriet! Didn’t know you were coming.”

The two of them stepped inside, even though Harriet still felt like she was invading their privacy, and were greeted by a standard locker room. Someone was showering at the far end, while Harry and Ron talked animatedly, and Angelina was nowhere to be seen.

While Lee started a conversation about their most recent moves and the predictions of what might Slytherin do, Harriet wandered a bit into the locker room, eyeing the discarded robes and Quidditch items that laid around. She was lost in her own thoughts, unaware, until something cold and wet slid down her nape.

“Ah!” She yelped and quickly turned around, finding a laughing Fred standing right behind her. “Git.”

He laughed even more, shaking his head so all the droplets from the wet hair landed on Harriet, who did not like it one bit.

“I come in here to support the team and this is how you repay me!” She said in mock irritation, almost unable to hide the smile that tugged at her lips. “Honestly, I… ah!!”

Someone caught her from behind and again, more cold water entered in contact with her body. This time, there was no doubt in who the culprit was.

“George!”

His laughter made his chest rumble, which Harriet felt on the back of her head. She realized then that, while Fred was wearing a shirt, George was not, almost as if he had just gotten out from the shower…

_Don’t go there, Harriet._

George finally released her, and she stepped back from the twins, noticing that her cheeks felt like they were burning. Great, she had started to act like a real idiot near her friends, just amazing. _Way to go you dumb girl._

“I-I’ll meet you outside better.” She said in a voice that, to her, sounded rather pathetic, before hastily leaving the changing room.

It was not long before her friends were again by her side, each with their own broom and chatting amicably as they started walking towards the castle. Harriet stared at the twins’ brooms; they were well cared for but clearly old and worn out. For a moment, she wondered about their family background, remembering how she had noticed that everything they owned seemed to be second-hand.

“What has my broom ever done to you?” Fred joked suddenly, making her snap out of her thoughts.

“I’ve never owned one,” said Harriet, “I wondered how it worked.”

The last part was kind of a lie, but she was genuinely curious about how it would feel to ride a broom. Would the wind whipping her face be too harsh? Would she feel cold? Would it be uncomfortable?

“You’ve never flown on a broom?” George asked with curiosity. She shook her head. “Well, I think we can fix that.”

Harriet did not like the mischievous grin that appeared in both of their faces.

“No, no. I like my feet where they are. You know, on the ground.”

But it was no use: the twins had already made a decision, and Harriet had long ago learnt that nothing could deter them when they set their heads on something. She would have to bear with it.

“Next week, after training.” George promised her.

Harriet knew she could not say no to him.

***

The morning of the match, although cold, brought no rain, much to everyone’s relief. Harriet had never in her life seen a Quidditch match, but it was not too difficult to imagine just how terrible it would be to witness one under the pouring rain.

Having no other way to show off her house spirit, Harriet put on her Gryffindor scarf and a nice red headband, and then proceeded to spend the entirety of breakfast trying to calm Angelina down, who was very nervous about her debut as team captain. Alicia and Katie were calmer, thankfully, but the twins were a whole other story. They looked pissed at something, and Harriet had to hold them back from hexing the Slytherins a couple times.

Since practically all her friends were in the team, commenting the match or in the Slytherin house, Harriet had no choice but to sit with the only other people she knew well enough: Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley.

“I hope they win,” Hermione whispered nervously, Harriet agreeing with her.

“If only Ron had a bit more confidence…” mused Ginny, looking a little worried for her brother.

The referee, Madam Hooch, blew her whistle and so, the match started, fourteen players shooting upwards on their respective brooms. Harriet had never seen anything that fast; it was almost dizzying how quick the Chasers threw and caught the Quaffle, and the Weasley twins were mere blurs here and there, redirecting Bludgers towards the other team.

“Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is, I’ve been saying it for years, but she still won’t go out with me –”

“JORDAN!”

Harriet stifled a laugh at her friend’s commentary, imagining McGonagall’s face as she chastised him. It was clear that Lee Jordan was born to be a commentator, she thought as she heard him happily narrating the match. Thanks to him, Harriet could more or less follow the quick succession of movements, gasping whenever a Bludger hit someone.

“… dodges Warrington, avoids a Bludger – close call, Alicia – and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what’s that they’re singing?”

Lee stopped talking for a moment and everyone listened to the song that came from the Slytherin part of the stands, loud and clear.

_Weasley cannot save a thing,_

_He cannot block a single ring,_

_That’s why Slytherins all sing:_

_Weasley is our King_

Even though she hardly knew Ron, Harriet felt herself invaded by rage, pure and utter fury at the hurtful lyrics of the Slytherin song. How could someone be so, so nasty, as to make that kind of song? It went on with more disgusting words, until Lee resumed his commentary louder than before, trying to drown it out.

_Oh, Adrian, for your sake I hope you’re not singing along._

Angelina shot the Quaffle but missed, earning a collective groan from the Gryffindor crowd, and then Warrington, the Slytherin captain, caught the red ball and zoomed towards the Gryffindor goal. Everyone held their breath as he threw the Quaffle, the horrendous song rising from the green and silver crowd while Ron dived… and missed.

The Slytherins started singing even louder and Harriet gripped her wand under her robes, thinking about just hexing a couple of them in that precise moment. She felt a hand stopping her arm and met Hermione’s eyes, a mixture of sadness, anger and impotence in them, as the brunette shook her head.

“They can’t do this.” Harriet hissed in rage.

“Sadly, they can.” Ginny pipped up, looking utterly furious. “Slimy gits.”

The match went on in all its intensity, Harriet following Lee’s commentary as she tried to keep her eyes trained on the scarlet blurs. Slytherin scored yet once again, and then twice more. The Gryffindors were practically in agony as the song grew louder. Harriet felt tears of rage brimming in her eyes.

Finally, Angelina scored, and they all cheered happily, hoping for Gryffindor to pull back. According to what she remembered of the rules, if the Seeker caught the Snitch their team would be awarded 150 points. Harriet looked at Potter, who flew all over the pitch no doubt in search of the elusive ball. Her heart thumped nervously on her chest, and it was then when she understood why everyone loved Quidditch so much.

The crowd suddenly gasped and Harriet diverted her attention from the twins, who were sending Bludgers towards the opposite Chasers, to the Seekers, now neck to neck and flying at lighting speed.

“He has it! Harry caught it!” Ginny shouted, rising from her seat.

Indeed, Harry showed his closed fist to the spectators, who went wild, cheering and screaming… until a Bludger hit him straight in the back. Harriet brought her hands up to her face in shock, seeing how the boy was thrown off his broom and landed roughly on the ground under him, flat on his back. There were angry yells and catcalls coming from the stands and she felt overwhelmed with worry for her housemate.

Soon, however, Harry Potter was on his feet again, the Gryffindor crowd roaring as Angelina, Alicia and Katie hugged him. Harriet noticed that a Slytherin player, one with platinum blond hair, seemed to be yelling things at him.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds. She could hear Hermione whispering “oh my god” right next to her, and then saw one of the twins and Harry speeding towards the Slytherin boy, proceeding to beat him up gruesomely in the middle of the pitch.

Only then did Harriet realize that she was yelling too, shocked by the sudden violence, and felt Hermione gripping her forearm next to her. The girl’s face was white as a sheet, clearly impressed by what had just happened, and her eyes followed Professor McGonagall as she walked out of the pitch with Harry and either Fred or George in his tow – from the distance, she couldn’t tell.

“Better go to the common room…” Ginny muttered, shaking her head.

There was a grim atmosphere in the Gryffindor Tower when everyone arrived, despite having won the match, no one felt too prone to partying. Harriet had found Fred on her way up, discovering that it had been George the one to beat up the kid – who was called Malfoy, according to them. They had not talked much, though, because the red-headed boy was too furious to even form a complete sentence.

Harriet thought it would be best to stay out of his way for the time being.

When Harry and George finally returned, it was with bad news. They had been banned from playing Quidditch, and Umbridge had confiscated their brooms. Harriet sat quietly with the team, hearing their gloomy complaints and trying to piece the situation together. Apparently, that Malfoy guy had said some nasty things about the Weasley family, and about Harry’s parents. The look on the twins’ faces when they recalled it was one she never wished to see again.

One by one, everyone went to bed, and soon only Harriet, the twins and the Golden Trio were left, the latter huddling by the fire and talking amongst themselves.

“It was a good match.” Mumbled Harriet, not looking at either of the boys. They were both half-lying in a couple armchairs, while she sat in the rug next to George’s legs.

No one answered and so, they sat in silence. She put her head back against the couch, right where George’s hand was, and was about to utter an apology, when she felt his fingers carefully digging into her hair, caressing it ever-so-slightly.

Soon, Fred went upstairs to sleep, and later the Trio did too, until it was only George and Harriet there. And it was then when she realized – it was always George and Harriet.

 _Shit_ , she thought, feeling his hand still caressing her soft black hair, _I think I have a crush on George._


	11. Night Flights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is life with the Weasley twins if not a constant adventure?

It snowed every day during the following week, leaving the castle’s grounds covered in a white blanket and the lake completely frozen, resembling a muggle Christmas postcard. Harriet had grown used to the snow, back in Germany, but that did not stop her from excitedly playing with the twins and Lee, throwing snowballs back and forth and organizing great fights on their free periods, whenever she was not studying with Adrian.

They did not seem to be as upset about the Quidditch match as she had suspected at first, although that may just be their way of coping with things – acting like nothing had happened until it was time to confront them face to face. It was Harriet’s way to cope too, sometimes, and it was what she was doing with her newfound crush on George.

All in all, the week went by in a flurry of snow and homework, feeling almost normal. Harriet liked normalcy.

Of course, with the Weasley twins, this would not last long: it was just a matter of time.

“I’m so sick of snow,” Adrian complained on Friday evening as they sat in the Library together, their table next to a window from where they could clearly see the snowflakes falling slowly, “spring can’t come fast enough.”

Harriet shrugged, not looking up from her Charms essay. “Between spring and winter, I’ll take winter any time.”

“But spring has nice weather!” The Slytherin insisted, leaning forwards a little so that he did not have to talk too loudly. It was clear that he was trying to procrastinate as much as possible. “Not too hot, like summer, but not cold either. And blossoming flowers, come on, don’t tell me you prefer this bleak wasteland.”

“I have allergies,” she clarified with a small smile, “so yes, I want the bleak wasteland.”

Adrian scoffed lightly and lowered his gaze towards the Defence Against the Dark Arts essay that he had been working on for the past hour. So far, he had only written down the title.

“I usually don’t like to judge teachers… but Umbridge is testing me here. She’s a real mess, what’s with the theoretical teaching?.” He mumbled, his eyes glaring holes into the parchment. “I don’t get why my housemates like her so much.”

“Well, after what happened last Saturday I think they’ll love her even more,” said Harriet through gritted teeth, her grip on the quill tightening. She had heard from Angelina that it had been Umbridge the one to ban Harry and the twins from Quidditch forever, and the one to take their brooms away.

“You mean at the match? What happened?”

Harriet looked up at him in surprise, trying to find out if Adrian was messing with her or not. His eyes looked genuinely curious and honest, though, giving no indication that he might be trying to mess with her.

“There was… a conflict. Over a song. Your housemates composed a truly nasty song about my friends, and they didn’t take kindly to it… so they beat up Malfoy.” She tried to keep her explanation as brief as possible, not wanting to spark an argument over the topic with Adrian.

He, on the other hand, looked both shocked and disgusted. Harriet felt a bit relieved at that; some part of her had expected him to straight up defend the Slytherins, but Adrian was better than that. She immediately felt bad for having judged him like that, having known from the very beginning that he was not like the others.

“I’m never a supporter of violence, but knowing my darling housemates, I’m sure they didn’t hold back when making the song.” He simply said. “Then again, I highlight that violence isn’t the answer. Even if I can confirm that Malfoy is a real git.”

Trust Adrian to stay neutral at all times. Harriet had seen it coming, though, especially since he had not heard the song to know exactly how offensive it was, so she just stayed quiet, relieved to at least having gotten it off her chest.

They worked silently together, only speaking from time to time to make a comment or ask for spare parchment. Both of them enjoyed that dynamic, especially Harriet, since it was something her Gryffindor friends couldn’t give her: a calm, personal space to sort out her own thoughts… and to work, of course.

As she glanced up at Adrian for a moment, Alicia’s words echoed in her head. She had said that Adrian could be interested on her, and that he and Harriet would make a cute pair. Would their Library meetings turn into study dates?

Harriet tried to imagine them cuddling somewhere, reading a book together with the fireplace nearby, only the crackling of the flames as background noise. She imagined turning around to kiss him, and his hair looked so red under the light of the flames… so, so red, like it belonged to someone else…

“Harriet, Harriet!”

Her eyes focused and a pair of snapping fingers appeared on her field of vision, startling the girl. She looked up to see Adrian already standing up and with his bag slung over one shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“I told you it’s already dinner time, come on or you’ll miss it.”

“Oh… true.”

Harriet gathered her things onto her messenger bag and stood up as well, putting the chair back against the table. They were practically alone in the Library; everyone had gone to dinner already.

“I finally managed to write half of my essay,” Adrian commented with a victorious smile, clearly proud of his accomplishment, “now I just have to write some filler paragraphs, a repetitive conclusion and it’ll be over. Honestly, it makes me wonder why I signed up for that subject.”

“Because you need it to be a Healer.” Harriet supplied, making him scoff.

“And I still don’t know why. It isn’t as if someone’s bone would suddenly get up and attack me.”

It was not like Adrian to complain that much, she noticed, and judging by the way he kept frowning and throwing random comments around, Harriet realized that something else must be on his mind. She did not want to pry, though, and patiently heard all his complaints while hoping that he would open up at some point.

The two of them separated paths when they arrived at the Great Hall, Adrian smiling her goodbye as he walked towards the Slytherin table while Harriet searched her friends on the Gryffindor one. Sure enough, they were already there, and there was a spare seat next to Angelina that she did not hesitate to take.

“Hi Harriet, you’re late,” Lee pointed out with a smirk, “did the Library date take too long?”

“Shut up.” She said, sitting and immediately shoving some meat and gravy onto her plate. “Pass me the vegetables, will you?”

Eating silently while listening to her friends’ conversations, Harriet felt her mind drifting elsewhere. She recalled the realization that had hit her like a ton of bricks a week ago and briefly glanced at George, who was laughing at something Fred had said, his eyes bright and a dazzling smile. Feeling the back of her neck heating up, she quickly looked back at her food.

It was never going to happen; Harriet knew that much. Fred and George were pranksters, filled with wild ideas and the need to make someone laugh, they would of course go for someone who was more in their lane. She was just a plain student, who worried about exams more than they did and had little to no need for mischief. Yeah, Harriet was down for an adventure if the chance appeared, but it was not the same as actively seeking it.

Her crush on George, big as it might be, was bound to end in heartbreak.

***

For Harriet, Friday night was always a time to relax, where she forgot about the stress of homework and instead picked a good book and allowed herself to get lost on it. During the past weeks, she had also taken to spend some of those Friday evenings with her friends, sitting by the fire in the common room and listening to the radio without a care in the world.

That day, however, the twins had other plans for her. Everything was normal after dinner: they all walked up to the common room, chatting and laughing, but it became clear that things would not go as per usual when, instead of allowing her to sit by the fire, they steered her towards somewhere else.

“Hey, what’s up with you two?” She inquired, crossing her arms and standing in front of the door that led to the girls’ dorms.

Fred and George grinned identically at her.

“We made a promise –”

“– and we never, ever, break our promises.”

Harriet arched one eyebrow.

“…okay I guess.”

“Now, take your jacket, scarf and gloves, and meet us here in five minutes,” Fred instructed her, “come on.”

Feeling both excited and curious about the so called surprised, Harriet did as she was told, picking her favourite grey sweater and throwing a brown jacket over it, plus her Gryffindor scarf and black gloves. When she walked down again the twins were already there, wearing their jackets too and with their characteristic mischievous looks.

“So,” George started as they walked down the steps that led to the main hall. Since it was not past curfew yet, they did not bother sneaking around, “remember our promise last week?”

“You were going to teach me how to fly.” Harriet muttered when she realized what they meant.

“Exactly.”

“But Umbridge took your brooms, how –”

“As if that was going to stop us.” Fred waved his hand with a smirk, replacing the dark look that had dawned on both his face and George’s at the mention of Umbridge. “Don’t worry about the details, little Harriet.”

He ruffled her hair and she scowled up at him half-heartedly.

They quietly exited the main door, which was luckily open, and stepped into the fresh night air. The grounds were dark and cold, but the twins seemed to know perfectly well where they were heading, because they did not hesitate for a second before resuming their walk.

“Won’t someone see us?” Harriet inquired, trying not to look too nervous.

“Nah.” Said Fred. “We won’t be flying too close to the castle.”

Harriet understood their plan as soon as they arrived at the locker rooms. Right next to them was a broom shed, of course, full of school brooms that George told her were used so that the first years could learn how to fly. Each of them picked one, making sure that it was not too beaten up or prone to breaking mid-flight.

Refraining herself from asking too many questions, Harriet followed them towards the Forbidden Forest. She had no intention whatsoever of stepping inside that place – honestly, who went to somewhere called _Forbidden Forest_ in the middle of the night? – and thankfully the twins didn’t either. They just walked along the edge of the trees until they found a secluded place, hidden from anyone who might be watching from the castle.

“First lesson: how to sit on the broom.” Fred announced ceremoniously, making a show of putting the broom between his legs. Harriet tried to imitate his posture while laughing.

“Not bad.” Said George. “Now, take off.”

Apart from the initial fear when taking off, Harriet soon discovered that flying on a broom was not all that scary, especially when she had the twins by her side. They were surprisingly patient with her, cheering and making stupid little dances whenever she managed a movement right, and by the time an hour had passed she could fly quite fast – although nowhere near to the speed of Fred and George, who could also perform daring pirouettes mid-air.

“We should go over the lake,” Fred suggested as they landed, “I bet the giant squid is there somewhere, bored out of its mind.”

“Let’s poke it a little.” George grinned, but Harriet stayed firmly on the ground.

“I’m _not_ going to fly over the lake. What if I fall?” She said, arms crossed and broom on the ground. “I don’t have the skill, plus it’s dark and I don’t trust the school brooms.”

“Come on! It’ll be fun.” Fred tried to convince her.

Harriet shook her head while looking down and George approached her, more tactfully than his twin brother.

“If I’m the one flying it, will you trust me?”

Surprised, she looked up at him. He was grinning at her with that characteristic glint on his eyes, making something inside her do a somersault.

“…” She really could not resist him. “But if I fall, you go down with me.”

“Deal.”

Fred cheered happily and they took their positions, Harriet carefully sitting right behind George. She could feel his body heat seeping through the jacket and wondered whether it would be a step too far to loop her arms around his waist.

Almost as if he had read her mind, George turned his head to look at her and smirked.

“Hold on tight.”

Harriet felt herself blush – honestly, she was starting to hate it so much – and, thankful that it was dark and neither him nor Fred could see her face, held carefully onto George’s waist.

They took off abruptly, the wind brushing against their faces and playing with their hair, making Harriet feel glad that she had thought to gather it into a ponytail. She relaxed slightly against George’s back and smiled, seeing the shimmering water appear right under them. Fred was shouting something at them, but it was difficult to hear him over the wind.

George shouted something back and they descended a little, at which Harriet yelped in surprise and excitement. They were so low that, if she stretched out her legs, she could touch the water. Right next to them, Fred appeared into view, throwing little stones towards the calm water and creating ripples.

“Is there really a giant squid?” Harriet asked out loud while intently watching the water surface.

“Yeah, and he’s our friend.” Said George with a grin.

Suddenly, the ripples grew wider and Fred stopped throwing stones. Harriet could not see his face in the dark, but she was certain he was smiling broadly, same as his brother.

“There he is!”

A thick tentacle broke the surface, swinging around and making the three of them cheer with excitement. Harriet wondered how big the entire squid was, all her doubts from before erased at the prospect of adventure. She and George watched as Fred dived low and dared to touch the tentacle, which seemed to respond to his touch by thrashing around even more.

They laughed and spent a good ten minutes trying to touch it, until the squid grew bored and disappeared under the surface, leaving the three of them hovering on their brooms. Darkness was all around them and it was fairly cold, so they decided to go back and call it a night before they were caught. Trouble with Umbridge was the last thing any of them wanted.

“That was interesting.” Harriet said brightly as they finished their little adventure, putting the brooms back in the shed and walking inconspicuously back to the castle.

“I’m glad you liked it, Miss Kohl –” Fred slung an arm around her shoulder.

“– because there are many adventures to come.” George imitated his brother and both sandwiched Harriet between them.

Miraculously, the three Gryffindors reached their tower without running into anyone. They said their goodbyes and cheerfully went to bed, Harriet taking care not to wake up her dormmates when she entered the room.

As she laid into her bed later that night, Harriet could not help the giddy smile that spread through her face, feeling whole for the first time in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished my exams so I'll be able to write more! A big thank you to everyone that has read, commented, bookmarked or given kudos - I don't deserve you guys. I hope you all like this chapter, and see you next Thursday! :)


	12. Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who doesn't like frogs?

As the days went on and December started, seventh years had the pleasure to witness how their work started piling up. Harriet spent more time at the Library than anywhere else, ignoring the twins’ complaints that she should leave studying for some other time and instead have fun with them, and felt the effects of NEWT-induced stress all around her.

Seventh-year students could be divided into three categories, according to her and Adrian during a boring evening: the ones who got a little _too_ anxious over exams that were months away and practically did not sleep (mostly Ravenclaws), the ones who studied every day but were not that worried (she and Adrian), and the ones who were chilling constantly and not doing anything at all (Fred and George).

Amidst the general stress, the DA meetings were the perfect place to let off steam for a while. Harriet felt herself getting better at defence spells, mock-duelling against the twins and managing to win once – George was a tough opponent, but not as much as Fred – and started wondering if they would learn more advanced stuff, like how to cast a _Patronus_.

“We finally found replacements for the team.” Said Angelina glumly after one DA meeting, as she, Alicia and Harriet were walking back to the common room. “It’s not ideal, but at least Ginny Weasley makes a pretty good Seeker.”

“You have half the Weasley family in your team.” Harriet joked, making her low-spirited friends smile a little.

“I think actually every one of them has been on the team by now,” Alicia put on a thoughtful face, “except Percy, of course.”

“Do I want to know how many Weasleys there are?”

As they talked about the Weasley brothers – there were seven in total, Harriet recounted, it was crazy – the three girls reached the Gryffindor tower, in a much better mood. There they found that the twins had arrived already, hogging the seats around the fireplace and tossing what looked like a Dungbomb back and forth between them.

“Sometimes I think you two just Apparate inside the castle.” Angelina joked, the three of them sitting on a wide sofa.

“And what if we did?” Said Fred, winking in Harriet’s direction.

She smiled at him, knowing that the twins likely used secret passages to get everywhere faster than other students.

“Anyways, we were just talking about you,” Alicia recalled, dodging the pillow George lazily threw her way, “Harriet was rather interested in your brothers.”

“Hey!” She protested, but it was no use.

“Ooh, Harriet!” Fred cooed, both him and George leaning forward.

“Don’t tell us you have a thing for Ron.”

Harriet rolled her eyes and felt her cheeks grow warm when she realized that she indeed _had_ a thing for a Weasley… just not Ron.

“I just wondered about the older ones… are they troublemakers like you two?” She clarified.

The twins laughed at that.

“Yeah, Percy is a real prankster.” George said sarcastically. There was a hint of bitterness in his voice, but he hid it well. “They’re more of a goody-two-shoes. Well, Bill is a curse-breaker, but he was Head Boy, and Charlie works with dragons.”

“That sounds amazing!” Harriet exclaimed with wide eyes. Dragons! She had always wanted to see one, they must be so incredible.

“Percy is a professional Ministry arse-kisser.” Added Fred, doing a worse job of hiding the disgust on his voice.

“Fred!” Angelina protested at the crude language, but he ignored her.

Sensing that it was a bit of a sensitive subject, Harriet thought it better to change the topic, and soon they were all talking about Quidditch… again. The twins did not seem as angry as they had been the previous days, so either they were making peace with their punishment, or they were just too good at hiding their true emotions.

Time passed fast as they hung around the fireplace, joking and throwing the occasional pillow around, until Angelina and Alicia decided it was best to go upstairs and get some sleep, since it was a weekday. Harriet was about to follow them, when the twins stopped her.

“Wait a second.” Fred said.

She shrugged and told Angelina and Alicia to go without her, then turned to the twins expectantly. They had a mischievous glint on their eyes, one she knew all too well. A prank was coming.

“I’m guessing you have plans for tonight.” She grinned, crossing her arms and looking at both redheads.

“Correct, Miss Kohl.”

“And _you_ are coming with us.”

They did not leave her much choice after that, and so the trio waited until everyone had finally left the common room and, at around half past eleven they climbed out of the portrait, wands in hand and matching smirks.

Harriet felt their excitement becoming contagious and, eventually, she did not really care that it was a school night, or that they could get caught and punished. She was with the Weasley twins, and they were bound to have an amazing time.

“What’s the plan?” The dark-haired witch muttered as they slid around the corners silently. Fred made a shushing gesture, but George was kind enough to lean closer to her and whisper on her ear:

“Harmless fun today. We’re filling the Charms corridor with frogs.”

Doing her best to ignore the shiver that went down her spine when George’s breath tickled her neck, Harriet smiled at him and clutched her wand tighter.

“Is there a spell for that?” She whispered back.

“Duplication.” Came Fred’s voice ahead of them.

They finally reached the Charms corridor, trying hard not to giggle when Fred took a small frog from under his robes and duplicated it, quickly silencing the animal so that it would not croak too loudly and blow their cover.

Following his lead, Harriet started duplicating the frogs too, and soon the entire hallway was filled with the jumping animals, entering every unlocked classroom and just hanging around everywhere. Supressing their laughter was becoming harder by the second, and the three of them had tears in their eyes from all the fun they were having.

“Oh, Merlin.” Harriet whispered, her voice shaking with barely supressed giggles as she pointed to Fred. “You have a frog in your head.”

That was their breaking point. Both twins roared with laughter and she soon joined in, Fred jumping up and down and shaking his head to get the frog off it as George chucked a couple at him with _Wingardium Leviosa_. Harriet had not had that much fun in ages.

And, of course, their fun was bound to be over pretty soon.

“Misters Weasley and Miss Kohl, care to explain?”

The stern voice of Professor McGonagall rang in the stone hallway, cutting their laughter off at once. Harriet turned around slowly, her heart thudding quickly as she faced the Transfiguration teacher with a clearly guilty face. The twins did not seem all that fazed, if only, just startled by the sudden appearance.

“There was a decrease in the frog population…” Fred started with a cheeky smile.

“… we were just helping them.” Finished George, his smile identical.

McGonagall did not find it funny, though, her face hardening and looking somewhat even more severe in her tartan robes.

“Twenty points from Gryffindor each, and detention tomorrow evening. Now, go to bed, _right now_.” She sentenced, her tone harsh.

The twins had, at least, the decency to erase their grins and look slightly ashamed as they walked past the teacher. Harriet was thoroughly embarrassed, though, but grateful that at least they had been caught by McGonagall and not Umbridge. She could not have dealt with another bloody punishment given by that old toad.

“That went well.” Fred commented breezily as they reached the common room.

“She forgot to make us clean the frogs.” Added George with a laugh.

Harriet, although still feeling ashamed at the whole ordeal, let out a small chuckle, imagining the Charms hallway still full of frogs jumping around.

“I better go to sleep,” she yawned mid-sentence, “tomorrow’s a big day.”

“McGonagall’s detentions aren’t that terrible, don’t worry.” Said George with a small grin.

“Plus, we’ll be there to cheer you up!” Fred winked at her and the twins high-fived.

“What a great birthday present.” Harriet replied sarcastically, crossing her arms and grinning at her friends.

Fred and George froze at her words, slowly turning to look at her with all traces of a smile wiped from their faces. She hardly ever saw them so serious, and it usually was bad news.

“Are you saying that –”

“– tomorrow it’s your birthday?”

“Yeah, why?” Harriet did not like where it was going. She hated surprises, specially birthday surprises, and even more if everyone was fussing around her. Quiet birthdays were more of her thing, just a couple congratulations and that was all. No gifts, and no parties.

“Why didn’t you tell us before?!” Fred exclaimed frantically, waving his hands in the air. “We have to throw a party!”

Harriet groaned, knowing that it would be hard to stop the twins once they set their minds to it. She noticed George keeping quiet, just looking at her, and wondered if he was actually noticing how uncomfortable the sole idea made her feel.

“No. No surprises, no parties, nothing.” She said sharply.

“But you’re turning eighteen! That’s a pretty big deal in the muggle world?” Fred retorted, waving his arms around and looking at his brother for support.

“Yeah… at least let us give you something.” Said George with a small pout.

Both of them looked at her expectantly and Harriet realized that she had never told them her real age… she was turning seventeen, not eighteen. She was about to clarify it, but then it occurred to her that seventeen was a big deal among British wizards, and that, if the twins found out about it, she would have a way harder time to convince them to not throw a party or make a fuss.

So, Harriet had to lie.

“Well, eighteen isn’t that big of a deal to _me_.” She replied, a bit more stiffly than she intended. Deciding to stop the conversation there before the twins argued further, she added: “Anyways, it’s late. I’ve got to sleep and so do you. Goodnight boys.”

The twins looked at her in surprise but didn’t try to get her to stay, instead mumbling each a “good night” and letting Harriet climb upstairs to the girls’ dorms. Once she was completely out of hearing range, George turned to his brother with concern on his face.

“There’s something she’s not telling us.”

“I think so too.”

He stared at the fire thoughtfully, and then looked back at the girls’ dorms stairs once more.

“I guess we’ll just have to find out what it is.”

***

The next day, Harriet was pleased to see that the twins had not told anyone else that it was her birthday. She appreciated the letter her parents sent her and the lack of gifts, since that would have definitely alerted her housemates, and avoided Fred and George the entire day, instead spending most of the Friday afternoon at the Library with Adrian.

Birthdays had never been important for her. Ever since she was little, Harriet had taken to asking her parents not to throw a party or give her any gifts, preferring to just spend the days as if it was any other. She hated being in the spotlight like that and would never understand why people liked it so much.

When evening rolled around, she met Fred and George outside McGonagall’s office. Thankfully they didn’t seem annoyed or bothered, so Harriet just acted casually and greeted them with the usual cheerfulness.

“Lee told me the frogs were still there this morning.” She told the twins, who laughed loudly.

“Next time, we put them in Umbridge’s office.” Fred suggested with a mischievous grin, and Harriet chuckled at the idea, although still a bit reluctant to get too close to the High Inquisitor.

As the twins bickered about something irrelevant, Harriet glanced at her right hand, seeing that the wounds there were completely healed, thanks to the Murtlap essence, but the scars would always be etched on her skin, if only a lighter shade. The thought made her shudder, so she looked back at the twins and forced a smile to not worry them. Only George and Adrian knew about Umbridge’s punishment – if Fred, Lee or the girls had noticed, they had not said anything, for which she was grateful.

“We should knock on the door.” Said George, checking his brother’s wristwatch. “I’m sure McGonagall can’t wait to enjoy our incredible presence.”

Harriet snorted at that and waited as Fred knocked happily on the door, creating a little rhythm before a stern voice from inside commanded them to enter.

Detention with McGonagall was actually pleasant enough, she only had them write a few lines and even allowed Harriet to do some of her class work when she finished, which was a relief. The twins, of course, could barely keep still, and by the time their punishment ended, Harriet was sure McGonagall was happy to let them out of her sight and relax a little.

“You could have benefitted from this, you know.” Harriet hissed at them as they left the classroom and strode towards the Gryffindor tower. “I’ve seen how behind you’re on every subject.”

“Hilarious, Kohl,” Fred waved his hand with a sardonic laugh, “it’s not as if we need to study, anyways.”

“What do you mean?” She narrowed her eyes at them. “NEWTs are just around the corner.”

“And?”

Harriet looked between Fred and George suspiciously, not trusting the carefree expressions they wore. NEWTs were not as important for everyone, but since they were taking seventh year, they should care in some degree… right?

“Are you not going to –” she started but was promptly cut off by Fred.

“Ask us no questions and we’ll tell you no lies, Harriet.”

They did not touch the subject on the way up to the common room but, later that night, as she was lying in the darkness of the girls’ dorm, Harriet could not help but think about the twins’ attitude once again. If her suspicions were correct – and by the way they had acted, it was likely – why were the twins still at Hogwarts?

In any way, she still had exams and essays to worry about, so that could be something to think about some other time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I hope you liked this chapter. Warning: long note ahead - I'm sorry, but this is a necessary thing to say.  
> \- First of all: several days ago, while writing this, I realized that this work is getting waaay too cisheteronormative for my liking. Since diversity is an important and very real thing, I apologize for not realizing sooner and I assure you that there are LGBT+ characters to come (they've been planned since day 1, but they have taken a bit long to come out). I'm basing this on my experiences as a (repressed) teenager, so I think it will be realistic enough. The George x Harriet pairing is the main focus, of course, so don't worry about that.  
> \- Second: speaking of diversity, there is something that needs to be addressed too: BLACK LIVES MATTER. I'm white, but this is a very important issue and we all need to fight for it, so here is a thread of petitions you can sign to help even if you're not from the US (like me): https://twitter.com/defnceles/status/1268721489278312448 If you think this is unnecessary... please think again.  
> \- Third: lastly, I want to say too that if you support JK's transphobic words, get out of here. I will not support TERFs or bigots in any shape or form, and I want to leave that clear. If you feel attacked by this, please re-evaluate your life choices and why you think it's alright to hate on an oppressed and marginalized group. I am LGBT, and I won't stand for any kind of discrimination.  
> This was quite long, but thank you for bearing with me. I feel like these issues must be addressed and I cannot stay quiet anymore. I know many people prefer it when writers just write and keep silent about politics, but I've never been one to not stand for what it's right.  
> Thank you for reading this, please don't be a bigot, and see you next Thursday! :)


	13. Party like it's your birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet's first party turns out to be more than what she expected.  
> CW: underage drinking (depends on what you consider underage, but I'll leave it here just in case)

“Come on, just tell me!” Harriet exclaimed for the tenth time that Saturday afternoon, arms crossed as she regarded her two dormmates with a slight frown.

“No.” Came Angelina’s short reply.

Alicia stifled a giggle and pretended to be focused on writing her essay, much to Harriet’s chagrin. They had been like that all day, and, although the black-haired witch was not the type of person to get anxious if she  did not know something, she had to admit it bothered her greatly that seemingly everyone in her friend circle knew something that she didn’t.

With the twins involved, it certainly could not be anything good or that abided to the school rules.

“Ugh, you’re just as bad as them.” She huffed, giving up and leaning back into the armchair with a Charms book on her hand. “At least tell me it’s nothing dangerous.”

There was no answer to that, Angelina and Alicia only exchanging slightly amused glances before going back to their own homework. Harriet tried to focus on the chapter Professor Flitwick had asked them to read the day before, but it was no use. Her imagination kept wandering to the mysterious secret that the twins, Lee, Alicia and Angelina seemed to know, and she briefly wondered if it had anything to do with her birthday, which had been only two days prior.

If Fred and George had broken her trust and told the girls and Lee about it… Harriet would feel very disappointed in them.

Afternoon rolled around slowly but surely, with the three girls nose deep in their books and essays while the sun set in the horizon, its golden light bathing the Gryffindor common room through the tall windows. Harriet liked those moments, where everything was peaceful and she could just enjoy the presence of her friends, each doing their own thing, but together nonetheless. She knew that, once they left Hogwarts, those would be the moments she would cherish the most.

“I’m starving,” Angelina spoke after a while, rising from her seat and stretching much like a cat would, “dinner should be ready by now.”

“Let’s go then.” Alicia dropped her quill and followed her example.

Harriet looked at their surroundings before putting down the book, noticing for the first time in a while that the common room was, in fact, way  _ too _ peaceful, clearly lacking the resident troublemakers.

“Where are Lee and the twins anyways?” She asked after carefully marking the page and straightening out her skirt. “Haven’t seen them since lunch.”

“Oh, they’re…” Alicia spoke quickly but trailed off abruptly under Angelina’s pointed glance, “uh, setting a prank. I think. They didn’t go into detail. Yeah that must be it.”

“Not the secrets again!” Harriet complained, her words falling into deaf ears as the two girls packed their things and went towards the portrait hole, pretty much abandoning her. “Wow gee thanks.”

“Come on, I want dinner!” Angelina said laughingly from the entrance.

She caught up with them and, together, the three Gryffindor girls made their way towards the Great Hall, stuck in a conversation about how long and dreadful the Transfiguration essay was. Harriet had not started it yet, but already feared the amount of time it would take her to write it.

The Great Hall was already packed with students when they arrived, loud chatter filling the enormous space as everyone grabbed a bite from the four house tables. Harriet quickly spotted three free seats right in front of the twins and Lee, which they hurried to take before some first year stole them.

“Long time no see.” Angelina commented, throwing a glance at Fred before digging into some mashed potatoes.

“Been busy.” Lee replied nonchalantly, smirking at Harriet when he thought she was not looking.

With one arched eyebrow, the black-haired girl stared at the twins, who wore identical smirks.

“You already know what I’m going to ask.”

“And the answer is still no.” They replied in unison, the smirks growing bigger and more irritating.

Harriet shrugged defeatedly and stuck her fork into a piece of carrot without much enthusiasm. Vegetables had never been her favourite food, but she had to make an effort to eat decently at Hogwarts: not everything in life was pudding and sweets, as much as she would like it to be.

“By the way, some news,” Lee lowered his voice as he spoke, looking around him and then leaning closer to them, “my galleon burned earlier.”

The mood suddenly shifted, excitement and caution palpable in the air as the twins grinned and the girls exchanged glances, everyone paying attention to Lee.

“I don’t have it in me, what did it say?” Asked Alicia, her words accompanied by several agreeing nods from the others.

“Tuesday next week, I reckon it’ll be the last before Christmas.” He supplied.

During the rest of the meal, they talked in not-so-discreet whispers about what the next DA meeting would entail. Everyone was eager to learn more advanced spells, and Fred even suggested asking Harry about it, but Angelina quickly shot down the idea by saying that the fifth-year boy probably had already enough without them bothering him about the DA.

After dinner, the six of them climbed up the stairs towards the common room, talking cheerily about some pranking devices the twins had gotten on their last visit to Zonko’s and in an overall pleasant and happy mood. Harriet was expecting that, as they often did on Saturdays, they would stay at the common room and watch for a while as the twins sold their products and goofed around.

That is why, when George tugged at her arm with a grin and pulled her up the stairs to the boys’ dorms, she was thoroughly surprised.

“What? Why?”

No one answered her, too busy giggling and stumbling upstairs. Alicia and Angelina kept looking back with equally nervous and amused looks on their faces, while Lee talked loudly about keeping Kenneth Towler downstairs for the evening.

They finally reached a wooden door that read  _ Seventh Year _ and sported several scratches and what looked like scorch markings. Harriet did not have much time to dwell on the state of the door, as she was quickly pushed inside by the girls and stumbled into a nearby bed.

“Alright,” she turned around, arms crossed, “explain.”

Fred and George wore innocent faces, at the same time that Angelina and Alicia broke down in a fit of giggles again and Lee yelled with showmanship:

“Welcome to a Party Night at the boys’ dorm!”

“Party Night?  _ What _ ?” Harriet asked confusedly.

Fred laughed and crouched next to a bed, pulling a crate from under it and making a grand gesture before picking a bottle from the inside.

Firewhiskey.

“Just like Lee said, party night.” Angelina finally explained, putting a hand on her shoulder and smirking. “We drink a little, goof around, that sort of stuff.”

“It’s been ages since the last one!” Alicia exclaimed excitedly. “This is your first one too, so we wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Oh.” Realization dawned on Harriet as she looked between her two friends, then directed her gaze towards the twins, who were currently helping Lee gather some food from some other crate. “This was the big secret?”

“Yup.”

She narrowed her eyes, again in the direction of the twins. George winked at her from where he stood, arms full of snacks.

“Just a dorm party? There’s no… other motive for doing this?”

Lee looked at her in mild confusion, arching one eyebrow.

“Why would it be? Just a friendly get-together.”

The twins grinned at her again, and deep down, Harriet  _ knew _ . For the rest of their friends, it was a normal get-together, Party Night or whatever they liked to call it, but for Fred and George… it was their way of celebrating her birthday. A quiet gathering with friends, without too much attention being directed to her.

Suddenly, Harriet felt bad for lying about her real age. They had been very considerate of her feelings and good friends, and she had just lied to get out of trouble, thinking they would not be nice about it.

There was not much time to think about it, though, because Lee quickly directed everyone to sit on the floor in a circle, passing around Firewhiskey and Butterbeer bottles. Harriet picked a Butterbeer one, laughing at a joke George had just cracked, and they all started drinking and talking happily.

“Games!” Fred clapped his hands together after a short while. “Any suggestions?”

Alicia raised her hand up eagerly, already a tad too happy due to the quarter of the bottle she had downed.

“Spin the bottle!”

Several groans followed her petition, mostly coming from Angelina and Lee. Harriet just kept silent, wanting to see what other suggestions were thrown into the table. She had only attended a couple “parties” like that one before, back in Germany, but with the twins and Lee in the mix, that one promised to be thrice the fun.

“Suggestion denied, sorry,” said George, “maybe later when we’re all drunker.”

Harriet looked at her Butterbeer thoughtfully. She had never gotten drunk before… maybe it was the time to experience something new, with her friends.

“Truth or dare.” Angelina suggested with a small smirk. At her words, the twins suddenly stood straighter, very invested on it.

“Why not.” Said Lee, smirking as well. They all turned to Harriet then, who felt a bit like a deer in the headlights under their stares. “You’ve played before, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” She smiled lightly, taking a swig of the beer. “But don’t be too hard on me!”

“No promises!”

Fred started the cycle, asking Lee, who was sitting between the twins so that they would not have to be daring the other – things could get dangerous very quickly, explained Alicia to Harriet in a low voice.

“So, Lee Jordan, truth or dare?” Fred asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes, clearly excited to be doing it.

“Dare.” Said the boy confidently.

“Starting strong, are we.” Angelina laughed and reached for a chocolate frog.

They stayed silent as Fred thought for a couple of seconds, until he talked again.

“Since it’s the first time, I’ll go easy on you.” He said in a tone that was not reassuring in the least. “I dare you to say the alphabet backwards in exactly fifteen seconds.”

“Well, that’s easy.” Replied Lee, about to start saying it when Fred interrupted him.

“But there’s a catch!” Fred exclaimed, grinning. “If you can’t make it, we’ll each draw something on your face with this quill.”

Lee seemed to consider it in his mind for a second before shrugging, giving everyone an easy-going smile and then closing his eyes, likely concentrating to do the dare.

Of course, he was not able to do it in fifteen seconds, mostly because Fred and George kept shouting random things while Harriet laughed and Alicia cheered, so everyone took turns in writing stupid things on his forehead and cheeks.

Time seemed to go by faster than usual as they kept playing, laughing and drinking. Angelina was next after Lee, choosing truth as to not fall into the boy’s possibly embarrassing dare, and then it was Harriet’s turn.

“Truth or date?”

Everyone stared at her expectantly, some with smirks, others just interested, and Harriet felt a bit hot under all the attention. She spoke quickly, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible.

“Truth.”

Angelina smirked and stopped to think of a question to ask. 

“Honestly, I can’t think of anything better and I am rather curious so…” she said, while everyone waited for her next words, “are you a virgin?”

Three things happened in quick succession. First, Alicia squealed loudly in surprise, then, Lee yelled something along the lines of: “you can’t go around asking that!” and, finally, Harriet’s bottle slipped out of her hand and into the floor, making a loud, clattering noise but thankfully not breaking.

“I-I…” Harriet found herself stammering, mostly because of the shock that the blunt question brought with it. However, she quickly regained herself, feeling brave and a bit bold, a small smile slipping on her face. “Yeah. You’ve got a problem with that?”

Angelina laughed, apologizing quickly, and Harriet laughed with her. The rounds continued for a while after that, the questions becoming more and more weird while the dares were just plain crazy. At some point, George had to go downstairs, find Ron and wordlessly hug him, which left the rest of the group in hysterics upon seeing the younger boy’s startled and confused face.

At some point after her third turn and several Butterbeers, Harriet tried a sip or two of Firewhiskey from George’s half-emptied bottle, gagging in disgust at the burning flavour that travelled down her throat.

“How can you drink this?!” She slurred, waving the bottle in the air rather dangerously.

Everyone laughed as Alicia took the Firewhiskey from her hands and placed it on the floor. The atmosphere was light and relaxed, and once everyone had drunk a little too much to not be so sober anymore, things started to get really wild, to the point that they had to stop playing Truth or Dare in fear someone would get hurt.

Once the snacks were gone and all bottles emptied, they took to laying around while Lee attempted to sing some English song Harriet did not recognize. Angelina and Alicia were quietly giggling in one of the beds, shooing everyone away when they tried to approach them, while Fred and George argued loudly about something no one else could understand.

Harriet stood up after a while, feeling the need to clear her head. She felt dizzy and tired, her body heavy as a result of the alcohol, and her blurry mind supplied a memory of the window that was just outside the dorm. Maybe if she could get there and breathe some fresh night air, she would feel better.

“Where ya’ goin’?” Fred asked in a loud voice and a strange accent, throwing a ball of parchment her way that Harriet did not bother to dodge.

“Uh… fresh air.” She stumbled over her words but managed to form a coherent sentence somehow.

The twins shared a brief look but did not add anything else, letting her walk past the still singing Lee and out of the room.

The hallway was empty and almost completely dark, since everyone was either in the common room or already sleeping, and the sudden silence was an unexpected relief. Harriet stumbled over to the window that was right in front of the door, clumsily opening it with her wand – how she managed to cast the spell correctly after only two tries was a mystery – and finally breathing in the fresh air, which sobered her a little.

A noise made her turn around suddenly, the boys’ door opening behind her and casting a sliver of light that revealed the outline of one of the twins.

“Fred told me to check on you.” He said, closing the door behind him and stepping closer to Harriet.

Only the moonlight that filtered through the open window allowed them to see each other, and she felt something inside of her stirring at the sight of George leaning on the wall next to the window, an easy smile on his face as he looked down at her.

“I know you told us not to do anything,” he spoke, looking up at the ceiling, “but we could not just let your birthday slide.”

“Thank you.” Harriet muttered softly. “It was amazing.”

George turned to her again, the distance between them somehow shorter. Harriet was suddenly very aware of this, feeling her heartbeat increase its speed as she stared right into the boy’s eyes.

“I’d give you a present, if you let me.” George mumbled, slowly getting closer.

Harriet was surprised he did not hear how hard her heart was beating.

“Maybe I can do an exception, just this time.”

He closed the space between them, one arm sneaking around her waist to pull her closer to him, his lips brushing against hers. Harriet almost melted into the kiss, linking her arms around his neck as it grew hotter and more intimate. Some part of her brain, the one that was not instantly exploding, supplied that it was happening too fast, that it was not real or that George was just drunk, but she just put it aside for the moment. Whether their kiss was a mistake or not; it was happening.

They separated after a few seconds, gasping for air. Harriet stared at George dazedly, feeling again a bit dizzy. Whether it was because of the alcohol or because of the kiss, she did not know.

“I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now.” She heard him whisper.

Smiling lightly, Harriet stood on her tiptoes and kissed him again.


	14. Unspoken Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things would always get solved fast if everyone just talked about their feelings, but when has that ever happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, I've had some family stuff to take care of these days and I didn't get a moment to proofread and update this chapter until now. That said, I hope you like it :)

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

“I’m not. Is it really that hard to believe?” 

“The fact that you and George snogged and haven’t talked about it _since then_? Well it’s hard to believe that you two are such a pair of morons.” 

“We’re not–!” 

Madame Pince’s withering glare was enough to shut Harriet up before Adrian could shush her properly, the girl’s cheeks briefly reddening with embarrassment. The Slytherin prefect just arched one eyebrow, toying with his quill over the half-finished Potions essay. 

“Okay, it’s weird,” she said, her voice much lower than before, “but you’ve got to understand, we were drunk… kind of. What if he regrets it?” 

Adrian scoffed, outwardly appearing as if he was bored but deep down enjoying the situation immensely. 

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” he said, leaning forward with a smirk, “actually, that’s how I tell them apart. Believe me, George doesn’t regret your kiss.” 

Harriet felt heat creeping up her face once again, flustering at her friend’s words. She had never noticed if George looked at her in some particular way, but maybe that was because she was too focused ogling – no, scratch that – _staring_ at him. Innocently staring. Nothing else. 

“You should just talk to him.” Adrian added decisively. “And stop fretting about it.” 

Mulling over his words, Harriet glanced down at her blank parchment, where a Transfiguration essay should be already written. However, her head was somewhere else; specifically remembering that fateful night in which she and George had kissed not once or twice, but _five_ whole times before Fred yelled at them from inside the dorm, right when things had started to get a little steamy. 

She was taken out of her daze by Adrian snapping his fingers right before her face, pointedly looking at the parchment and smirking knowingly. 

They spent the rest of the morning in the Library, only stopping half an hour before lunch because Adrian wanted to rest a little. Christmas holidays were just around the corner, starting in four days, so teachers had made it their goal to send the students as much work as they could, in preparation for the NEWTs that grew nearer every day. Harriet wanted to savour those last days with her friends, even if it was while studying, since they would not see each other until after the holidays. 

Going home did not sound like an appealing activity to look forward to either. On their last letter, her parents had informed Harriet that her grandmother would be spending Christmas with them, which would only ruin the festivity with the eagerness of engaging in politic talk the old lady always showcased. Even though they had met only a couple times before, she was well-aware that wizard politics were her grandmother’s preferred topic of conversation, and her conservative views were not exactly Harriet’s cup of tea. 

“Crap, I think I left my special quill at the Library.” Adrian’s sudden swearing pulled Harriet out of her thoughts, the blonde prefect rummaging through his bag hastily. “See you after lunch?” 

Harriet shrugged under his brown gaze, nodding and watching her friend hurriedly walking down the hallway back to the Library. That left her all alone in the middle of a random hallway, not really knowing where to go. Lunch was mere minutes away, but she did not fancy eating alone until her friends showed up… 

The bell rung, signalling that lessons had just ended for the morning and prompting a flood of students to invade the narrow corridor, mostly first and second years mixed with the occasional sixth years. Harriet was about to walk away from the mass of people, when a hand closed around her wrist. 

“What –” 

A mop of red hair and the flash of a smile shut her up as she allowed the person behind her to pull her through the students and into a nearby, empty classroom. 

The door clicked shut behind Harriet, her back hitting the wood mere seconds after that. His dazzling smile was the only thing she saw before he captured her lips with his own. 

“We can’t do that here!” She pushed George back after a few seconds, panting a bit. The redhead just rested a hand on the door, beside her head, and looked down at her with the usual mischievous glint in his eyes. 

“Why not?” 

“B-Because…” Harriet stammered, her mind struggling to get the correct words. The surprise kiss had caught her completely off-guard, and a huge part of herself was just screaming to go back to kissing George. “… what if someone catches us?” 

George smirked, knocking lightly in the door behind her. 

“It’s locked. Just you and me.” He replied, lowering his voice a little as his sparkling eyes bore into hers. “Unless you don’t want this…” 

Harriet did not hesitate after that, throwing all caution to the wind and, standing on her tippy toes, smashing her mouth against his once again. She smiled into the kiss when George let out a small sound of surprise, looping her arms around his neck and bringing him closer to her. 

Hands wandered to her waist, pushing her lightly against the door as his chest collided with hers. Harriet started playing with his hair as the kiss deepened, feeling him carefully sliding his fingers up and down her back, almost hesitant, as his mouth wandered towards her neck. Heat bloomed inside her, clouding her mind with desire and a sudden need to get _more_. 

The second bell rang, and the moment was lost. 

“Shit,” George suddenly pulled back, running a hand through his hair frantically, “I have to go.” 

Stunned, Harriet did not even attempt to hold him back as he almost ran out of the door, quickly merging into the crowd of students that were on their way to lunch and disappearing from sight. 

“Alright.” She muttered crestfallen, ghosting her fingertips over her lips, where George’s had been seconds before. 

Harriet had definitely caught serious feelings for the red-haired prankster, it was more than a simple crush, and she was certain it would only mean trouble. 

*** 

Ancient Runes had always been an interesting class for Harriet, never once getting bored out of her mind as she usually felt during other lessons, but that particular day it was proving hard to listen to a word the teacher said. Adrian had not seemed to notice her dazed state, which was a first, too preoccupied with taking notes at a lightning speed, or maybe he was just postponing the conversation for another time. Either way, the dark-haired witch found herself falling into a sort of trance during the entirety of the two-hour lesson, her mind playing out all the possible scenarios that could happen with George. 

By the time Professor Babbling stopped talking and all the students quickly started to pack their things, Harriet had managed to get very flustered and anxious, something that Adrian might have not noticed when he bid goodbye to her, but that Angelina and Alicia definitely detected. 

“There’s something you’re not telling us.” Alicia stated when they met in the common room, forgoing her previous conversation with Angelina in favour of interrogating Harriet. “Spill.” 

Sighing, the younger Gryffindor let herself fall into the nearest armchair, her bag laying on the carpeted floor unceremoniously. 

“Can’t wait for holidays, eh?” She attempted with a weak smile, but the diversion of the conversation was quickly shot down by Angelina. 

“Does it have something to do with George?” 

Harriet froze at the question. Were they _that_ obvious? Of course, she and George had maintained their distance since Saturday night, not wanting the rest of the group to know about their… intimate moment. However, after the surprise intimacy that had taken place earlier, Harriet was not sure how to act. 

“I’m not sure we should be talking here…” She muttered, not meeting her friends’ eyes. 

That did not deter them, of course, and in the span of five minutes the three girls were standing in their dorm, books and bags disregarded on their beds as they waited for Harriet to spill the beans about what had happened with George. 

“You can’t tell anyone.” Harriet tried to adopt a stern tone. “Honestly, this is so embarrassing…” 

Angelina could not help it anymore. 

“What, you snogged?” 

Heavy silence settled after her blunt question. Harriet felt her eyes widening in shock and sheepishly nodded, shrinking a little when Alicia cheered loudly. 

“I knew it! Lee and I had a bet and now he owes me five sickles.” She blurted out happily, to Harriet’s surprise. 

“A bet, seriously? I can’t believe it…” Harriet hid her face behind her hands, blushing fully at the thought of being so obvious that her friends had started betting. 

“Well, are you dating now or what?” Angelina questioned, clearly curious about the whole ordeal. 

“No.” Came Harriet’s muffled answer. 

Alicia and Angelina exchanged glances, a mix of knowing and annoyed. 

“Honestly, Fred and George could get their shit together sometime soon,” commented Angelina, not sounding too pleased with them, “it’s always the same story.” 

The three girls grew silent again, a mixture of tension and lingering sadness in the air. Harriet knew Angelina was likely remembering her time with Fred the past year, but she had no idea of what the look on Alicia’s face could be hiding. Her mind flew back to George and she felt a bit angry this time. What was the purpose of avoiding the topic to then pull her into a classroom and kiss her like everything was okay? 

It was messing with her mind too much. 

“Quidditch training.” Said Alicia suddenly, both girls turning to her in surprise. “You should come, Harriet. Forget about boys for a while.” 

“Good idea!” Angelina smiled, on board, and crossed the room to get her training gear. “You can even have a couple laps in my broom if you’d like.” 

Harriet smiled but refused the last idea, preferring to simply watch from the stands. A pang of guilt appeared as she remembered that both Harry and the twins were banned from playing, so she would not get to see George at the training session. It would make for a good distraction, she thought, and maybe Lee would be there so they could talk about Quidditch and trivial stuff for a while. 

“Take your cloak.” Alicia warned her before they left the room. “It’s going to get cold.” 

The weather was, indeed, cold and bleak when they arrived at the Quidditch pitch. Harriet shivered as she parted ways with her two friends, choosing a random seat in the stands and immediately conjuring a small fire in a jar to keep warm. At least the wind was not picking up, she thought, trying to console herself. 

Time passed slowly as the Gryffindor team stepped out into the pitch, the sun setting in the horizon by then. Harriet regretted not having a book with her, but she admitted that, after a while and with the small fire keeping her warm, it was not all that bad. Her thoughts refrained from wandering towards a certain redhead, instead focusing on the flying players and the shouting of Angelina. 

“I feel bad for that poor bloke.” 

Lee’s voice startled her, the boy quickly sitting next to Harriet with a warm smile and a pointed look towards one of the new Beaters. Thankfully, he was alone. 

“Yeah, Angelina is a bit tough.” Harriet laughed with him. 

“A _bit_? I’m surprised she still hasn’t hexed Sloper off his broom.” 

Having Lee with her certainly made things more bearable. Harriet found herself slipping into an easy conversation, smiling and animatedly talking about the new components of the Quidditch team. 

“Ginny seems talented,” she commented, watching the younger redhead zoom around in her broom with palpable style and confidence, “must run in the family.” 

“Well,” Lee snorted. Right in that moment, Ron had failed to block a goal spectacularly, “I think it skips certain generations sometimes.” 

“Don’t be rude.” Harriet chastised him half-heartedly, but she was smiling too. 

Since there was a DA meeting after, the training did not take as long as usual, Angelina wrapping things up in time for once. Harriet was happy to meet her friends and Katie Bell near the castle entrance, with Lee, and together all of them made their way to the Room of Requirement. 

Angelina was kind enough to pair up with her in the spell-reviewing session they had, so Harriet could avoid contact with the twins for the most part. She felt herself perfecting the Impediment Jinx and the Stunning spell, feeling George’s eyes on her during the latter. 

He was clearly trying to catch her eye by the time the meeting came to a close, likely wanting to talk or something, but Harriet was way too skilled in pretending she did not see him, engaging in breezy conversation with Angelina, Alicia and even Katie, who had been orbiting around them the entire time. 

However, she should have known better than that. A Weasley did not give up easily. 

“Hey,” a hand grabbed her arm as they were leaving the room, “is everything okay?” 

Harriet was not surprised to see Fred and George staring at her, even though her heart started beating a little faster. George’s touch felt like it burned, but thankfully he let go quickly of her forearm. 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” She arched one eyebrow with a nonchalant air. 

“Well…” Fred trailed off, clearly thinking of the right words to convey their feelings. Harriet was not an idiot, she knew they had noticed her avoidance, but would not say anything about the matter until they admitted it. 

The hallway had begun to empty out, everyone leaving to their respective common rooms. Angelina, Alicia, and Lee had left too, probably sensing that the conversation between Harriet and the twins was somewhat important, and she resented them for that. For starters, there was no conversation needed with _Fred_ , only with his brother, but of course, they had to do everything together. 

Had George even told his brother about their new… state of affairs? 

“I would like to finish an essay tonight so unless there is anything to talk about…” Harriet knew she was being a little unfair. She tried not to care. “See you later.” 

Neither of them said anything, which was a bit strange given how talkative the Weasley twins usually were, so Harriet just walked away, arms crossed and annoyed not only with their antics, but also with herself. 

Little did she know, it would be quite a while before they saw each other again. 


	15. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas holidays but make it drama.

Four days before Christmas, five people disappeared from Hogwarts mysteriously. Specifically, four Weasley brothers and one Harry Potter. It was in the middle of the night, with no witnesses what-so-ever apart from a couple Gryffindor fifth years that recalled Potter having nightmares and summoning Professor McGonagall to their dorm. However, that was pretty much all about it. Not even Lee Jordan, who shared a dorm with the Weasley twins, knew anything about the matter. 

The rumours about their disappearances died out by the time Christmas came around, everyone preferring to spend their last moments with their friends on the train excitedly talking about the oncoming holidays. Harriet Kohl, however, was an exception to all that. 

“You can’t keep sulking like that.” Angelina warned her as they boarded the Hogwarts Express early in the morning, delicate snowflakes slowly falling all around them. “Yes, they’re real gits, but don’t let them ruin your Christmas.” 

There was no answer from Harriet, who busied herself by placing her coat and scarf on the luggage rack and then slumped on the carriage seat next to Lee. 

“Whether something has happened, or this is just a stupid prank, we won’t know until January,” Alicia added, sitting in front of her with an encouraging smile, “so why not forget about it, for now?” 

Harriet refrained from bitterly commenting about Alicia’s sudden ability to straight out forget about their friends and instead forced out a sigh, knowing that it would be best to just pretend for a while. She missed the twins terribly but, deep down, both girls were right: it was no use to think about it constantly. 

“Come on Kohl, let’s play some Exploding Snap!” Lee bumped his shoulder with hers and smiled broadly, pulling out a deck of cards from his sweatshirt pocket. 

“Alright, you win.” Harriet smiled too, for the first time in a while, and let herself get carried away by her friends. 

The train ride went by faster than any of them would have liked, between card games and stupid discussions, and eventually King’s Cross came into view with its crowded platform full of parents waiting for their children to arrive. Harriet bid goodbye to her friends and to Adrian, whom she luckily found on the platform, before looking for her parents. 

“Harriet! Look at you, so grown up!” Her father was the first to approach her, smiling broadly and hugging her. 

“I look the same, dad.” She laughed, stepping out of his embrace and into her mother’s. 

The three of them quickly engaged in conversation as they walked towards the car, parked not too far from the station, and Harriet happily talked about Hogwarts and her friends at length, omitting only the slightly illegal things and her feelings about George. 

“I think it’s better than Mühlfeld,” she declared after a while, once they were already in the car. Her mother turned around at the mention of the German school with a curious look – it was the one she had gone to, after all, in her youth, “I mean, it’s way bigger and well-prepared for some subjects, and the teachers are mostly cool.” 

Umbridge’s punishment came briefly to her mind, and she made her best not to cringe. 

“You know I hardly understand any of it, but as long as you’re happy, we are happy.” Came her father’s voice from behind the wheel, the smile clear on it even if Harriet could not see it. 

She smiled back, too, and wondered what her friends would be doing at that moment. 

The Breckenridge residence waited for them after the car ride, sitting in the outskirts of a small town with the stone walls and ivy-laden fences that Harriet had gotten accustomed to over the summer. It was not a huge house, with two stories and a mid-sized garden, but, for Harriet, there had always been a kind of threatening feeling around it, mostly because the house belonged to her mother’s side of the family. 

Breckenridge was not a common surname, she knew that much, and, given her grandmother’s political views over the importance of blood and how she looked down on muggles, Harriet had not taken long to discover that the Breckenridges were a pureblood wizarding family that maintained a somewhat high status over the rest of the more common families. 

“Marietta, dear, Miss Hudson came asking about the geranium again, maybe you could talk to her later?” The old woman’s voice drifted from the sitting room as soon as they stepped foot into the house. Harriet tried hard not to look as displeased as she felt. 

“Don’t worry mum, I’ll swing by her place tomorrow.” 

Harriet and her father exchanged glances, but none said anything. Friedrich Kohl was a muggle, and thus his relationship with his mother-in-law had always been, at best, strained. He liked to avoid conflict, but at least Harriet had him on her side during family dinners. 

“Hello grandma.” She finally stepped into the lounge, forcing a smile and setting her backpack down. 

The old lady turned to her, wrinkled features giving nothing away as she analysed her granddaughter. There was no smile, only the severe look Harriet was used to. 

“When will you fix your hair? It’s too bushy.” She finally spoke, distaste clear in her words. Harriet briefly touched a rebellious dark strand that escaped her low ponytail. 

“I think I’m going to unpack now, mum.” Her voice was tense as she looked at her mother, who just nodded. 

All the bedrooms were upstairs, Harriet’s the furthest down the hall. It was directly in front of the bathroom, which was a clear advantage, and, upon entering, she noticed that everything was exactly as she had left it back in September. The same grey quilt over the bed, which was perfectly made, and all her books neatly stacked over the desk that was pushed up against the opposite wall. 

Everything was neat and clean at first sight, so Harriet just lifted her trunk over the bed and started sorting out all the items she had brought home. It was not until she idly glanced out of the window that the dark-haired witch noticed what was amiss on her bedroom. 

Sitting neatly on her windowsill was a folded piece of parchment, almost blending with the environment. 

Surprised, she stepped forwards and picked it up, brushing her fingers against the parchment with curiosity. It could have been something left behind months ago, but somehow, it did not feel like that. Slowly, Harriet opened the letter, finding inside a short message written on familiar handwriting. 

~~_Dear_ ~~ _Harriet,_

_We don’t know when this will reach you, since Errol can NOT be trusted, but hopefully it’s not too late. You must have been wondering why we left like that, but really it’s_ ~~_nothing_ ~~ _just a family situation. We’ll see you after Christmas!_

_Lots of hugs,_

_Fred and George._

_PS: we need to talk after Christmas._

Harriet stared at the letter, torn between anger and relief. The fact that they had not explained anything at all angered her slightly, as well as the “we need to talk” thing – seriously, was there anything to talk about at that point? – but on the other side, she was relieved they were okay. The side of her that had feared something bad had happened finally calmed down, and Harriet felt hopeful at the prospect of seeing her favourite twins after Christmas. 

She just had to survive the holidays. 

*** 

Christmas dinner had never been a huge affair in the Kohl family, they usually just ate together and swapped presents, but nothing more. However, with grandma Kalysta Breckenridge in the equation, things were much different that year. The old woman needed everything to be perfect, apparently, requiring all the makings of a traditional English Christmas dinner, something Harriet and her mother would be slaving away at the kitchen to achieve. 

Some other time, Harriet would be cross with her father for not helping in the cooking, but seeing as his job was to keep her grandmother entertained, she almost pitied him. At least in the kitchen she could talk about anything with her mother and not worry about the old woman trying to snoop in their conversation. 

“So,” Marietta started talking with a glint on her eye, one that never suggested anything good, “you’ve told me about your friends.” 

“Yes, I have.” Harriet replied, not quite following. 

“What about… _special_ friends?” 

Harriet groaned inwardly. She knew it was coming; ever since she was fifteen, her mother had insisted on talking about romance, boyfriends and all that stuff, even more when she learned that, back at Mühlfeld, Harriet had fooled around with one or two boys. 

“There aren’t any special friends, mum.” She replied tiredly, pointedly turning around and tending to the raw turkey. 

“Not even that… what’s his name… Adrian?” 

At the mention of her friend’s name, Harriet tensed up. Snippets of conversations with Angelina and Alicia came to mind, how they had been so certain that the Slytherin prefect had a crush on her. But it could not be possible, she tried to reason with herself, Adrian probably just saw her as a friend. And even if he did not… well, there still was the thing with George. 

Realizing that she was getting too drawn into her own thoughts, Harriet cleared her throat, still refusing to face her mother. 

“Nope, not him. Just friends.” 

The disappointment was clear on her mother’s voice as she tried to pry further, but Harriet just shot her down mercilessly, insisting that there was nothing going on with Adrian. She carefully omitted the twins, just in case. George’s situation was still much too confusing for herself; it was not the moment to discuss it with her mother. 

“Alright, alright,” finally Marietta gave up, still smiling slightly as she surveyed her daughter, “you never tell me anything.” 

“You know that’s not true.” Harriet turned to face her, feeling her lips curving up in a smile involuntarily. “There’s just… nothing going on.” _At least not with Adrian_. 

“So dull, I used to have more fun.” Her mother replied, both of them chuckling at that as she shoved a couple canapé-filled plates into Harriet’s hands. “Take these to the dining room, give your father a break from grandma.” 

Not too happy with having to face her grandmother once again, Harriet complied, balancing the plates in her hands as she opened the kitchen door with her elbow. Her grandmother’s incessant chatter could be heard from the hallway clearly, the topic being the muggle Royal Family that time. 

“… and I told Margaret: that can’t be, they aren’t wizards! Can you believe…?” the woman’s voice cut abruptly upon Harriet’s arrival, both her and Friedrich turning to the door. 

“How’s the dinner coming along?” Asked her father, clearly relieved for not being alone with the old woman. 

“It’s okay.” Harriet shrugged, placing everything on the table. “Go help mum with the turkey, I can stay here for a bit.” 

Her father happily obliged, almost running out of the room and towards the kitchen, leaving Harriet alone with her least favourite person in the house. 

“So…” she cleared her throat lightly, trying to get past the awkwardness, “how are you feeling grandma? I see you appear very lively today.” 

Kalysta scoffed, leaning back on her armchair. 

“My back is killing me, and the knees won’t stop hurting! And the Healers at St Mungo’s can’t do anything right, in my times that was simply _unacceptable_!” She complained, missing how Harriet rolled her eyes not-so-discreetly. “But enough about me, how’s old Hogwarts? Is Dumbledore still hanging around?” 

“Of course,” Harriet replied hastily, not liking the woman’s distasteful tone when she talked about Dumbledore, “he’s a great Headmaster.” 

The old woman let out a cackle, her face contorting into a sneer before her next words: 

“He just lets muggleborns roam the place like it’s their right… we did not have such things with Armando Dippet, no sir!” 

Sensing that a string of complaints about blood purity or lack thereof was about to start, Harriet just sunk into the sofa tiredly, trying hard to block out the annoying voice and biting her tongue every so often to not start an argument. It was difficult, but she managed it, until she heard a familiar name. 

“… and those Weasleys! Who do they think they are, consorting with muggles right and left? No wonder they haven’t got a sickle!” 

Harriet sat straighter, feeling a hint of fury starting to boil inside her. Fred and George had never talked about their economic status, but she had, more than once, noticed the worn-out textbooks and second-hand clothes, so it was not hard to put two and two together. Hearing her grandmother talk about them like that, with that disgustingly haughty tone, was too much. 

“Shut up.” She hissed, nails digging into her jeans. “ _Now_.” 

Her grandmother let out a gasp of both surprise and offense, ready to yell at her for the lack of manners, but thankfully was interrupted by the door opening and both her parents entering, turkey finally cooked. Harriet leaned back on the sofa once again. Crisis averted. 

Oblivious to the tension between her daughter and her mother, Marietta just strolled in and settled everything on the table, thus making it look the perfect image of a traditional English Christmas dinner. They all took a seat around the table and started serving themselves, talking about unimportant stuff. 

“You’re quiet, Harriet,” her father asked at some point, everyone turning to look at the black-haired teen, “everything alright?” 

Harriet tried hard not to look at her grandmother, not even for a second, and instead feigned a neutral face. 

“Yeah dad, sorry. Just tired.” 

There was a brief moment of blessed silence, and then everything went to hell. 

“Marietta told me you’re friends with the Weasleys,” came the voice of her grandmother. Harriet fixed her eyes on the remains of her food. _Don’t get angry, it’s not worth it_ , “those blood traitors, it’s a step too low, even for you. But then again, you were sorted into Gryffindor…” 

“That’s enough!” Harriet spat, abruptly looking up and locking eyes with the old woman, anger clear on her features. “You don’t have _any_ right to talk about my friends like that! Or anyone, for that matter!” 

“Harriet dear, just…” her mother tried to intervene, but her words were quickly brushed aside by Kalysta, face contorted in disgust and rage. 

“They are traitors! Filthy, muggle-loving, good-for-nothing traitors!” 

The chair scraped loudly against the floor as Harriet abruptly stood up, hands clenched in fists and utter rage contorting her features. There were gasps from her parents, but she paid no attention to them, focusing solely on the cause of her anger. 

“Fuck you, old hag.” 

She did not stay to see her grandmother’s reaction, choosing to stomp away and to her bedroom. Christmas dinner had definitely been ruined, but Harriet did not care one bit, furious with the old woman’s words and feeling a sense of impotence at not being able to do more, to help her friends in some other way against those unfair insults. No one, not the Weasleys, not any muggle, deserved that. 

With tears of rage brimming on her eyes, Harriet plopped down on the bed, giving the pillow a few punches before turning around and staring at the ceiling in silence, sadness starting to claw its way over her heart. 

She wished George was there. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this chapter! I enjoyed writing the many emotions Harriet displays here :)  
> On another note, my computer died, so I hope I can keep the updating schedule consistent meanwhile. If I don't, please bear with me :(  
> See you next Thursday!


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